UFC Counter-Programs Affliction to Death

Check out SpikeTV’s schedule for July 19th:

4:00 PM EST / 1:00 PM PST
UFC Unleashed
Martin Kampmann vs. Drew McFedries (UFC 68)
Marcus Davis vs. Jason Tan (UFC 72)
Rich Franklin vs. Jason McDonald (UFC 68)
Anderson Silva vs. Travis Lutter (UFC 67)

5:00 PM EST / 2:00 PM PST
UFC Unleashed
Jason Lambert vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral (UFC 68)
Houston Alexander vs. Keith Jardine (UFC 71)
Brandon Vera vs. Justin Eilers (UFC 57)
Assuerio Silva vs. Frank Mir (???)

6:00 PM EST / 3:00 PM PST
UFC Unleashed
Frank Edgar vs. Tyson Griffin (UFC 67)
Dave Terrell vs. Matt Lindland (UFC 49)
Spencer Fisher vs. Thiago Alves (UFN 2)

7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
UFC Countdown: Silva vs. Irvin

8:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM PST
UFC: Ultimate Knockouts 5

9:00 PM EST / 6:00 PM PST
UFC: Silva vs. Irvin
Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin
Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy
Hermes Franca vs. Frank Edgar
Cain Velasquez vs. Jake O’Brien
Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns
Jesse Taylor vs. C.B. Dollaway

I guess it’s technically only “counter-programming” if your competition is airing something at the same time, but by flooding the day with fights — and presumably ads for the live show during every commercial break — the UFC has all but guaranteed that any casual fans channel-surfing on Saturday afternoon will be watching their event come Saturday night. It’s an especially shrewd tactic to draw in viewers on the West Coast, where the show will begin airing in an unusually early timeslot.

It’s also the first time on Spike for Ultimate Knockouts 5, which dropped on DVD in early June and features about 30 highlights. This will most likely be a pared-down version, and something tells me that we’ll be seeing stuff like Silva/Leben and Vera/Eilers on the broadcast version as opposed to, say, Arlovski/Sylvia II.