On Tuesday, June 25, a sport that mixes fighting disciplines meets a show that mixes sports and entertainment. It's a volatile combination that is sure to explode on TV sets from coast to coast.
For the first time ever on basic cable television, an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts event will be showcased on BEST DAMN SPORTS SHOW PERIOD, Fox Sports Net's unique nightly program that blurs the line between sports, comedy and entertainment. The UFC telecast is part of BDSSP's special All-Star Summer programming block. FSN cameras will cover five UFC bouts at Bellagio Las Vegas featuring some of the best young fighters in the world. One feature bout and highlights from the card will get the spotlight on BDSSP's June 25 show. The show will air at 10:00 PM after the Giants/Padres game.
BDSSP's feature match is a welterweight battle between undefeated up-and-comer Robbie Lawler (5-0-0) of Davenport, Iowa versus veteran Steve Berger (15-7-3) of St. Louis, with highlights from the other four bouts rounding out the evening's coverage. The telecast marks the first time that cable audiences can see a UFC fight without a pay-per-view charge, so the sport is almost certain to have its largest audience ever.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a sport that brings together the world's most talented ultimate fighting athletes from disciplines such as karate, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, wrestling, boxing and others in a quest to become an ultimate fighting champion.
UFC on BDSSP is part of the show's All-Star Summer, a month of special programming from June 24 to July 19 designed to celebrate a successful first year that saw expansion, audience growth and critical acclaim. All-Star Summer will be filled with big-name guests from both the sports and entertainment worlds. Special programming (like UFC and Tom Arnold's Celebrity Bachelor Party Roast); road trips to New York, Chicago and the MLB All-Star Game in Milwaukee; interviews with sports stars like Barry Bonds, Pedro Martinez, Derek Jeter, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling; exciting viewer contests like Win A Date With A Professional Cheerleader; and more, will provide viewers with an all-access pass to a summer of fun.
BEST DAMN SPORTS SHOW PERIOD on-air correspondent Leeann Tweeden travels to Las Vegas to cover these highly anticipated fights. The UFC card also features the regular voices of the UFC, blow-by-blow man Mike Goldberg and analyst Jeff Osborne, who are joined by comedian and actor Joe Rogan (Fear Factor, NewsRadio) for additional commentary.
BEST DAMN SPORTS SHOW PERIOD, which debuted July 23, 2001, features host Chris Rose, former pros D'Marco Farr (NFL), John Kruk (MLB) and John Salley (NBA) and actor/comedian Tom Arnold as the voice-of-the-fan. Former Dallas Cowboys superstar wide receiver Michael Irvin is a special contributor during All-Star Summer. The versatile Lisa Guerrero provides sports updates and highlights and feature interviews, and Lisa Joyner supplies the Best Damn Insider entertainment report.
BEST DAMN SPORTS SHOW PERIOD airs in prime time for two hours (as alternative programming when a home team game isn't on) at 8:00 PM with a re-air of the show at 10:00 PM. A special Saturday night midnight edition airs each week, featuring a "Best Of" the prior week's show.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., is the world's leading mixed martial arts sports company. It is owned and operated by Zuffa LLC and has partnerships with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in London, England; WOWOW, Inc. in Tokyo, Japan, and Globosat Programmadora LTDA in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It also has a partnership with Crave Entertainment, which creates and markets UFC video games on PlayStation, PlayStation2, X-BOX and GameCube in retail outlets and on www.ufcvideogame.com.
Fox Sports Net Bay Area reaches more than 3.5 million households in Northern California and Northern Nevada. Fox Sports Net Bay Area is owned and operated by Rainbow Sports Networks, a division of Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc.
Fox Sports Net reaches more than 79 million households nationwide and is a service of National Sports Partners, equally owned by Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc. and Fox. Rainbow Sports Networks incorporates Rainbow's 50% ownership of Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports National Advertising, and the ownership and management of Fox Sports Net regional networks in five of the nation's largest markets: Chicago, Florida, Ohio, New England, and San Francisco.