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Action Makes 'Ultimate' a Contender

Posted on: Friday, 21 July 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Michael McCarthy

There's a brawl shaping up on sports TV this summer pitting the new sport of mixed martial arts against the sweet science of boxing: Spike TV's The Ultimate Fighter and ESPN's The Contender.

The marriage of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the male-targeted Spike is working.

This year's third season of Ultimate Fighter averaged a 1.8 household TV rating -- 3.1 with the elusive audience of men 18 to 34 years old coveted by sponsors. Spike now airs six UFC shows. The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback debuts Aug. 17.

UFC President Dana White says the shows have become an assembly line for new TV talent. The UFC catapulted in popularity after Spike's live telecast of Forrest Griffin's victory against Stephan Bonnar in 2005, a slugfest that's drawn comparisons to Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns.

White's goal: create a live, weekly UFC card, similar to the old Tuesday Night Fights series on USA Network. "Spike had the (guts) to say: 'We'll do a live fight,'" says White.

For Spike, the UFC is a cost-effective way to deliver sports programming without having to pay for one of the big-time pro sports, says general manager Kevin Kay.

"It's bigger than boxing now. When guys say, 'Did you see the fight last night?' they're talking about the UFC, not boxing."

Despite star producers such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Sylvester Stallone and Survivor's Mark Burnett, Contender flopped on NBC and was canceled after one season.

Based on ESPN's two-hour premiere Tuesday, the sports network is not making the same mistake as NBC.

The episode focused more on action in the ring than stories about the boxers' personal lives. It generated a 1.1 rating; 1.3 with men 18 to 34.

Unfortunately, ESPN, like NBC, continues to edit matches while Spike shows them straight. Appearing on CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch this week, Leonard promised: "This time around (the show) will be even more boxing-specific." Smart move.

(c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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