For the first time ever, a UFC pay-per-view preliminary card will have a primetime lead-in on ABC.
ESPN announced on Friday that there will be a two-hour preliminary card simulcast on both the main ESPN network and ABC (as well as streaming on ESPN+) for next Saturday’s UFC 276 card from Las Vegas, Nevada. Here are the four fights confirmed for that network TV timeslot (8-10 PM ET):
Jalin Turner vs. Brad Riddell
Robbie Lawler vs. Bryan Barberena
Ian Garry vs. Gabe Green
Donald Cerrone vs. Jim Miller
As a little factoid, UFC 276 will represent the first time that Robbie Lawler has been on a UFC preliminary card since his debut against Aaron Riley way back in 2002.
As part of the UFC’s big partnership with ESPN, a handful of cards will air on ABC. The first show broadcast on ABC was in January 2021, when Max Holloway defeated Calvin Kattar in Abu Dhabi. Later that year the network aired a Fight Night headlined by Kevin Holland and Marvin Vettori. This will be the first primetime slot the UFC has had on ABC, and it’s for what figures to be their biggest PPV of the year to date.
The UFC will also have a Fight Night card on ABC live from Long Island, New York on July 16th, with a special early start time of 2 PM ET/11 AM PT.
UFC 276 features middleweight champion Israel Adesanya versus Jared Cannonier in the main event, while men’s featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski takes on former champion Max Holloway in a much anticipated trilogy meeting.
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