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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC may be experimenting with airing preliminary card bouts on Facebook this Saturday, but the organization is going back to the original home of "Prelims Live" for next month's UFC 126 event.
According to a report from MMAJunkie.com, the UFC will air two preliminary card fights live on Spike TV for the event, which comes live from Las Vegas on February 5.
It will be the first Prelims Live broadcast of 2011 for Spike TV, which aired ten such specials in 2010. The UFC aired three bouts on Ion Television for this month's UFC 125 when Spike passed on holding that broadcast, but there will be more in 2011.
The two bouts getting the live treatment for this event will feature featherweights Chad Mendes and Michihiro Omigawa, as well as lightweights Donald Cerrone and Paul Kelly.
Mendes and Cerrone are making their UFC debuts in their respective fights, coming over from the WEC in the merger. Mendes is a perfect 9-0 in his professional career, including four victories in the WEC. Cerrone enters the UFC off of two straight wins after a loss to Ben Henderson for the WEC Lightweight Title last April.
Omigawa returns to the UFC for the first time in over three years. The former lightweight found a rebirth of his MMA career as a featherweight in Japan, and will look to take out the undefeated Mendes on this card.
Kelly was initially slated to meet Sam Stout on this card, but an injury to Stout opened the door to Cerrone as a late replacement. Kelly rebounded from a loss to Jacob Volkmann last summer with a victory in his last fight, a second round TKO over T.J. O'Brien at UFC 123.
UFC 126 airs live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center, headlined by a Middleweight Championship bout between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort.
Penick's Analysis: I'm glad to see the return of Prelims to Spike. There were some good things production-wise about the Ion broadcast, but Spike TV allows the UFC to advertise heavily for their events at all hours, whereas the Ion thing was a one time deal announced a week out. Getting free fights is always a good thing, and these two should be highly entertaining. I'm not surprised to see Cerrone get a spot on television after his last two wins, but it is still slightly surprising that Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto's debut wasn't picked for this broadcast. Mendes-Omigawa is definitely a more meaningful fight in the division, but Dana White is a fan of "Kid's" and I would have thought he'd get a shot on TV. If he can pick up a win he'll likely be on TV the next time out.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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