Spike TV is sure to draw a large audience tonight, when it airs middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s debut fight in the UFC’s light heavyweight division (9 p.m.). And it’s no coincidence that the UFC is featuring the world’s best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist on free television the same night that clothing manufacturer Affliction will air its debut MMA event on pay-per-view.
Spike TV is sure to draw a large audience tonight, when it airs middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s debut fight in the UFC’s light heavyweight division (9 p.m.). And it’s no coincidence that the UFC is featuring the world’s best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist on free television the same night that clothing manufacturer Affliction will air its debut MMA event on pay-per-view.
UFC president Dana White wouldn’t explicitly say that the Silva fight was scheduled to compete with the Affliction card, but he also didn’t hide his disdain for the new promotion.
“My statement on that one is that there hasn’t been a better time to be a mixed martial arts fan,” White said. “You get to see the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world fight on free TV. Me being me, to tell you the honest to God truth, I don’t like the (Affliction) guys. Everybody wants to talk to me about competition - they’ve never put on a (expletive) show. How the (expletive) are they my competition? The guy sells T-shirts for a living. It drives me crazy.”
