Greatly impeded by a lack of promotion and the announcement of Stephan Bonnar being injured Monday, the Ultimate Fighting Championships and SpikeTV decided to continue with the promotion of their counter-programming of WWE’s debut on the USA network by releasing a card for the live special they plan to run from 9 to 11 pm.
Also, in the latest step to mount competition against WWE on October 3, UFC announced that they will be airing an episode of the show UFC Unleashed at 7pm, 55 minutes in advance of the scheduled start time for RAW and another UFC highlight show. Overall, the amount of programming on the night stands at approximately 20 hours, ending with TNA Impact airing unopposed at midnight on SpikeTV.
The live UFC special will feature, bereft of Stephan Bonnar, Evan Tanner vs. “High-Flying” David Loiseau, Chris “The Crippler” Leben vs. Edwin Dewees, and Josh Koschek vs. Drew Fickett. The Unleashed show will feature Andrei Arlovsky vs. Vladimir Matyushenko and Forrest Griffin vs. Bill Mahood.
PRIDE also announced today that it will be doing a PPV head-to-head with RAW on USA and Ultimate Fighter on SpikeTV on October 24. The show, which will air at 10pm eastern time, will feature Quinton Jackson (who has, at least temporarily, resolved contract problems with PRIDE) vs. Hirotaka Yokoi and Makoto Takimoto vs. Yoon Dong Sik, both of whom are judokas. The show will be taped the day before at Saitama Super Arena.
