From MMAWeekly.com:
UFC president Dana White on Thursday said a third UFC event was in the works for November, featuring a headlining bout between lightweight champion B.J. Penn and Diego Sanchez.
What may really peak interest is that he said the event was neither a pay-per-view nor a Spike televised affair, lending credence to strong speculation of a long coveted network television deal.
“Wait and see boys… if I can pull this one off,” he said.
I don’t really know what else there could be that would make the last line make any sense other than one of the many rumored network deals finally happening. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part but Lesnar/Carwin on PPV, Anderson Silva defending on Spike and Penn/Sanchez on network TV would make for one hell of a month to be an MMA fan.
UPDATE by Kid Nate: It won’t be ESPN, per Michael David Smith:
ESPN Executive Vice President John Skipper says he loved attending UFC 100 last month and would be interested in finding ways to work with the UFC, but he said nothing is in the works to have ESPN televise live UFC fights.
…
But what about televising live fights? Skipper said it’s not likely to happen any time soon. ESPN already has a fairly full plate of sports programming, Skipper said, meaning ESPN would only want the absolute best UFC fights. And it’s hard to see how ESPN would benefit from taking its best fights off pay-per-view, where fights can generate upwards of $25 million in revenue.
…“Nothing is imminent,” Skipper said. “I came away with a good impression, but don’t get your hopes up.”