Feb 15, 2012 - 2:15:32 PM

By: Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist

The UFC will debut on Fuel TV tomorrow night to very little fanfare. This has been a cause for concern among fans who don't have access to Fuel and thus won't be able to catch what purports to be an important welterweight fight between Diego Sanchez and Jake Ellenberger. Of course, whether or not the fight will actually determine the next contender is anyone's guess, but the point is that people know Diego Sanchez and want to see him fight, and many of them won't be able to do so. It's been said before that the deal with the FOX networks is a long-term strategy by the UFC, and that's illustrated very well by the Fuel situation.

When the UFC signed with FOX, they were able to secure a deal allowing them to show fights on at least FOX and FX. Those two networks are huge. Of course FOX is the broadcast channel, and FX has a similar distribution to that of the UFC's previous cable home, Spike (about 96 million homes). Obviously the UFC has a lot more programming than what they can fit on FOX, and FX is a well-established network with highly-acclaimed shows, meaning they weren't exactly hurting for content. That brings us to Fuel. I wasn't in on the negotiations (in case you were wondering), but it stands to reason that the UFC and FOX came to this kind of agreement: The UFC has a lot of programming that they want to put out there; Fuel TV isn't in as many homes as FOX would like; FOX basically says to the UFC, "This is your channel. Load it up with fights, shows, whatever you want, and then see if you can increase the distribution." It's a win-win proposition for the UFC and FOX. The UFC gets the next best thing to its own network, and FOX gets a selling point for a network that has very little distribution as compared to the major cable networks.

So who loses in this deal? Well, that one's not hard to figure out. Plenty of UFC fans, both hardcore and casual, don't have Fuel TV. They won't be able to see the fights tomorrow night, or at least not legally. That doesn't sit well with them, and quite frankly it shouldn't. This won't win the UFC any brownie points in the short run, but I think it's still a smart move if you're looking down the road. That is, if they play it right. And again, it won't be any fun for those who don't have the network, but in order for this to work out in the long run, not having Fuel has got to hurt.

They need to make it hurt. If anyone is going to care about having Fuel, they need to feel it when they don't have it. Case in point, if there are fights on the network that people want to see (Ellenberger-Sanchez, for example,) they will care about not having it. If, on the other hand, they put fights on the main card and main event featuring fighters no one has heard of, that sends the message that Fuel is kind of a bonus network. If you've got it, great. More fights for you. But if you don't have it, don't worry. You'll still see all the important things.

Now, I'm not saying that they need to put every contender fight on Fuel, because in the long run that just makes them seem miss-able. But putting one on there from time to time and filling the other cards with less-significant but entertaining fights is the productive way to go. It's one thing for Dana White to say, "UFC fans need to have Fuel." It's another thing for him to show them.

They also need to remind people that it hurts not to have the channel. Even when the fights aren't the most significant, the UFC needs to pump up how great the fights on Fuel were and what a shame it is if you didn't see it. During pay-per-views, during live fights on FX and FOX, they should be hyping how important and how great the last Fuel event was, and how you can't miss the next one. There's an event on FX on March 2. During that show, they should talk about Sanchez-Ellenberger and what impact it had on the welterweight division. Show highlights of the other fights and talk about them as if this was a can't-miss event. Maybe interview a winner or two. The second Fuel event will happen in April during the first season of TUF on FX - if you talk about that event during TUF, that makes it seem more important and something that fans don't want to miss.

Getting Fuel in more homes is just like getting more people to order pay-per-view shows. Make sure you have an audience (FOX, FX, PPV), tell the audience why it's important that they have Fuel TV (highlights and ramifications from the last event), and tell them how to get it (show the link to the Fuel website where you can notify your cable company or plug in your zip code to see who carries the network). It sounds simple, but it's surely a long process. For the time being it's going to hurt those who don't have it, but in the long run if Fuel keeps showing as much UFC content as they are (or more), it will be well worth the short-term pain.

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