NEW YORK -- In a first-of-its-kind announcement, the UFC has partnered with its longtime broadcast partner Spike to put a huge chunk of their fight library online. The site, UltimateFighter.com, will feature full episodes and complete fights from all 10 seasons of "The Ultimate Fighter."The show has been the launching ground for many key UFC fighters, including athletes who went on to win championship belts like Rashad Evans and Forrest Griffin, along with top divisional contenders like Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez and Michael Bisping.
The current fight library will include 120 episodes and 231 fights, including over 50 knockouts, with more content to follow from additional seasons.
MTV Networks Entertainment Group executive vice president of Digital Media Erik Flannigan told MMA Fighting that the idea was first hatched about two years ago, though the UFC at first considered it a bit of a "radical suggestion."
"For a long time, the working policy was not to give away fight finishes," he said. "But over time, we saw the search volume generated for some of these fights, and the majority of traffic was not going to UFC.com or Spike.com even though we generate signifcant traffic. It was a growing need that was unmet."
The site will also feature select video that never made it to air. For example, in the 11th season of TUF, which is slated to begin on Wednesday, there were 14 fights to determine who would make it into the house. While only snippets of the fight will be shown on air, all 14 fights will eventually be available in their entirety on UltimateFighter.com.
The Ultimate Fighter is the highest-rated show in Spike history and is largely credited with the explosive growth of the UFC and MMA in general by making the sport accessible and creating new fans. Spike SVP for Sports & Specials Brian Diamond told MMA Fighting that the show was under contract for three additional seasons dating until the end of 2011.
The decision to make such a significant amount of fights available on the web for free also gives hope to the possibility that the UFC will one day make the rest of their massive fight library accessible in a similar setup.
"It's a big pivot for the UFC," Flannigan said. "They're making their peace with free video access. The numbers spoke for themselves. There is an enormous number of people seeking these UFC fights, and not going to them. This site is going to change that."
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