(Photo courtesy of Bellator)
The year 2011 has been a rather defining one for MMA. Following suit, Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that fans no longer have to miss out on its live event preliminary cards, as the promotion has inked an agreement to stream the fights live on Spike.com. The partnership marks the first time the popular male-oriented television network’s website has streamed live mixed martial arts events.
“Fight fans have been coming to our site for years for great mixed martial arts clips and information,” said Executive Vice President of Digital Entertainment and MTV Networks Entertainment Group Erik Flannigan. “Now we are thrilled to provide them with action-packed live fighting each week.”
Spike.com will stream Bellator’s live preliminary card fights from 7-9pm ET/PT each week starting with the 12-week Season 5 that kicks off this Saturday at Bellator 49 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The broadcasts will then be picked up by MTV2 for live coverage of each event’s main card. In another first for the promotion, Bellator will be simulcast in HD on EPIX.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Spike.com,” said Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “The Spike brand is synonymous with mixed martial arts worldwide and is another member of the MTV family, who does an incredible job in resonating with the hard-to-reach 18-to-34-year-old male audience.”
Log on to Spike.com Saturday, September 10 at 7pm ET/PT to catch the inaugural broadcast of Bellator Fighting Championships’ undercard fights, and tune in to MTV 2 at 9pm ET/PT to find out who will move on in the Bellator Season 5 Welterweight Tournament.
MAIN CARD (MTV2)
- Dan Hornbuckle vs. Luis Santos
- Chris Cisneros vs. Ben Saunders
- Chris Lozano vs. Brent Weedman
- Steve Carl vs. Douglas Lima
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com)
- Joel Roberts vs. Brylan Van Artsdalen
- Giedrius Karavackas vs. LeVon Maynard
- Alexandre Bezerra vs. Scott Heckman
- Lester Caslow vs. James Jones
- Azunna Anyanwu vs. J.A. Dudley
