FOX Sports microphone flag.
AC Milan v Atalanta BC - Serie A A microphone branded Fox Deporters is seen prior to the Serie A football match between AC Milan and Atalanta BC. Milan Italy Copyright: xNicolòxCampox
FOX Sports is in the process of completing its 32nd year on the air. Throughout the three-plus decades of coverage, the network’s sports division has had two mainstays, the NFL and MLB. Other properties have come and gone on FOX Sports, but for seven years, the network was the United States rightsholder to the UFC.
Flashback: August of 2011: The UFC’s then-current television rights with what would eventually become Paramount Network were due to expire later on in the year. The same day, right as MTV Networks announced that The Ultimate Fighter television series would not be continuing on Spike TV beyond its upcoming season, FOX Sports would strike a deal with the UFC.
The pact called for a series of UFC Fight Night events to be held on selected weekends throughout the year on FOX’s broadcast network, as well as late prelims for UFC pay-per-view events on FOX’s cable outlets, such as what was then known as Fuel TV. FOX’s cable outlets, which would eventually grow to include FS1, would air Fight Nights themselves from time to time.
FOX Sports microphone flag.
AC Milan v Atalanta BC – Serie A A microphone branded Fox Deporters is seen prior to the Serie A football match between AC Milan and Atalanta BC. Milan Italy Copyright: xNicolòxCampox
FOX Sports Opens UFC Tenure with Title Fight
On Nov. 12, 2011, amid some changeover inside the network’s entertainment division with its Saturday night lineup, including the controversial decision to drop America’s Most Wanted with John Walsh as a weekly series for the second time, FOX Sports aired its first UFC event. That night’s telecast was a one-hour window on the main network.
The UFC Heavyweight Championship was at stake in the main event of UFC on FOX 1 that fall Saturday, with Junior dos Santos winning the belt by way of first-round knockout in one minute and four seconds versus Cain Velasquez. Nielsen ratings figures for the first FOX Sports UFC event showed that the network pulled in 8.8 million viewers at the telecast’s peak for the hour-long program.
All told, the UFC and FOX Sports had 31 Fight Nights on the main network between November of 2011 and the close of the rights cycle in December of 2018, aired seasonally on Saturday nights.
FS1 Joins the FOX Sports UFC Party
We move ahead in time to August of 2013. Less than two years into FOX Sports’ pact with the UFC, Speed Channel shut down with its channel space being occupied by FS1. Subsequently, Fuel TV would become FS2. The then-new network had an aggressive programming strategy right from its launch that month, including UFC events, one of which capped its first-ever broadcast day.
Boston’s TD Garden served as the setting for this first FS1 UFC Fight Night on Aug. 17, 2013. Just like the first main event on FOX Sports proper less than two years earlier, the initial headliner on FS1 ended in a stoppage.
That summer night in New England, Chael Sonnen defeated Mauricio Rua by way of first-round guillotine choke submission with 13 seconds remaining on the clock in the light heavyweight main event of the evening. In the co-main event of that night’s card, Travis Browne knocked out Alistair Overeem during the first round of a heavyweight contest.
In the earliest months of FS1, viewers would be occasionally treated to UFC shows on Wednesdays in addition to Saturdays, along with the rarer Friday night FOX Sports presentations and, more infrequently, Sunday UFC cards, the last of which took place in the summer of 2018.
ESPN Wrests Rights Away From FOX Sports
In 2018, the UFC’s television media rights deal was up for renewal, with FOX Sports having acquired over-the-air media rights to programming from WWE that May. This five-year deal would see what was formerly known as SmackDown Live move over from NBCUniversal’s USA Network to FOX in a Friday night timeslot 52 weeks a year, barring an annual preemption caused by the World Series, beginning in October of 2019.
Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming platforms were also gaining steam that spring, with ESPN+ launching that April. It didn’t take long for the Disney-owned sports platform to get involved with the UFC. Initially, ESPN and the UFC came to terms on a contract to bring UFC Fight Night events to the subscription-based platform before later inking a deal for the entirety of the catalog within days of FOX Sports agreeing to carry Friday Night SmackDown.
At first, the ESPN deal with the UFC was to have been a five-year agreement, lapsing in 2023, but two months into the new pact with Disney, the parties extended their relationship through 2025, matching the seven years that FOX Sports had with the promotion.
Iaquinta Takes Lee To Limit in FOX Sports UFC Finale
With the UFC’s pact with ESPN now confirmed, the final UFC event to air on FOX Sports would take place that December. Milwaukee played host to UFC on FOX 31 on Dec. 15, 2018. In the final main event on FOX, Al Iaquinta faced off against Kevin Lee.
This fight went the advertised five rounds, with “Raging Al” taking the victory on the scorecards to send the UFC out on FOX’s over-the-air affiliates in fine feather. Your co-main event of the evening that night saw the last knockout from the UFC to air on the network as Edson Barboza stopped Dan Hooker with a body shot in the third round.
Following a week off in observance of the Christmas holiday, the UFC wrapped up its 2018 calendar, and by extension, its run on FOX Sports properties, with UFC 232 coverage on Dec. 29 of that year, with the last fights on FS1 being that night’s late prelims.
Final Thoughts
FOX Sports was a wonderful steward to the UFC throughout its seven years covering it between 2011 and 2018. It was the first time the promotion had been seen on broadcast television.
They took a gamble on the UFC in 2011 and it paid off handsomely. What do you remember most about FOX Sports’ coverage of the UFC? Let us know in the comments.