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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Spike TV has finalized broadcast plans for November's UFC 138 event from the LG Arena in Birmingham, England, and three fights are official for the night's broadcast on Spike TV.
The event will air via same-day delay on the network, with U.S. fans being able to see the fights beginning at 8PM ET/PT.
Headlining the event is a middleweight clash between Chris Leben and Mark Munoz. Leben enters the fight off a quick knockout win over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 132, while Munoz has won three straight fights and six of his last seven.
"I'm really looking forward to this fight against Munoz and fighting in England again," Leben said in a release on Monday. "They have some great fans there, and the noise they make is loud. It is cool to make a little piece of history fighting in the first ever non-title five-round fight, but I guarantee I won't even need three rounds in this fight."
Joining that fight on the Spike TV broadcast is a bantamweight bout between Brad "One Punch" Pickett and Renan Barao, as well as a lightweight fight between Anthony Njokuani and Paul Taylor. More fights have been confirmed for the event by the UFC, but the Spike TV broadcast has not yet been fully set. The full card as it stands is below:
* Chris Leben vs. Mark Munoz
* Renan Barao vs. Brad Pickett
* Anthony Njokuani vs. Paul Taylor
* Papy Abedi vs. Thiago Alves
* Terry Etim vs. Edward Faaloloto
* John Hathaway vs. Pascal Krauss
* Michihiro Omigawa vs. Jason Young
* James Head vs. Mark Scanlon
Penick's Analysis: It's really unfortunate that Spike refuses to air a live broadcast during the day for fans that want to see the event live. Tape delayed events in 2011 just don't make sense because of how easy it is to be spoiled on the results, and it hurts viewership for when the event finally airs at night. For west coast viewers it's even worse, as there is an eight hour delay from when the event airs to when they'll get to start watching the event. Having a live broadcast during the day and then airing the event again in primetime would be a more ideal plan, but that's not the route that Spike wants to go with these events.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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