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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
September's UFC 135 event will be yet another with preliminary card bouts airing live and free on Spike TV, as MMAJunkie.com reports that an hour long special for the event is being planned.
It's becoming commonplace with Spike TV signing on for 12 pay-per-view event lead-in specials on their network, and this card is simply the latest to be granted the extra exposure.
No fights for the broadcast have been chosen as of yet, but the main card has still yet to be filled, so until that portion of the event has all its fights it makes it difficult to speculate on what could end up on Spike TV.
With that said, one fight is a near certainty for the broadcast in Ultimate Fighter season 13 winner Tony Ferguson in his lightweight debut against Aaron Riley. Spike TV "Prelims Live" broadcasts often contain fighters that have gotten exposure on the long-running reality show, especially with season winners in their first fight outside of the show's tournament.
The event takes place from the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo. on September 24, the UFC's first return to Denver under the ownership of Zuffa. The main card is headlined by a Light Heavyweight Championship bout between Jon Jones and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.
Penick's Analysis: Depending on what else gets added to this card, I think the bout between Takanori Gomi and Nate Diaz has a good shot of being the other fight on Spike, as does the heavyweight bout between Travis Browne and Rob Broughton. That said, the card still only has eight fights set thus far, so it will add three, possibly four more to the lineup that could be worthy of the spot on Spike TV. But Ferguson being on Spike is as near a certainty as you can have at this point because of him winning TUF. The card isn't quite up to the level of the major events surrounding it, at least not as it stands, but it's still a very good event overall, and features a very big title fight in the main event. It'll be a good night of fights all around, and whichever bouts are chosen for Spike, they should make for a good lead in to the pay-per-view itself.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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