The UFC has raised several personal bars with its first stadium show, UFC 129 next week in Toronto. Why not one more? The UFC announced early Thursday morning via its Twitter feed that all five of its unaired preliminary card fights for UFC 129 will be streamed live on Facebook. MMA Fighting was first to report Wednesday that at least two bouts were planned for the social networking giant.
For the first time in its history, every fight on the card will air on a broadcast of some type. The first five fights will stream at the UFC's Facebook fan page, a trend the company started in January at its Fight for the Troops 2 show. Two prelims will air live on Spike TV, a common pay-per-view lead-in the promotion started at UFC 103 in September 2009. And the main card will air on pay-per-view.
UFC 129, which takes place on April 30, will be the company's debut in the Canadian province of Ontario, which passed MMA legislation last fall. It marks the UFC's first stadium show, taking place at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, home of Major League Baseball's Blue Jays and Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts. The event instantly shattered North American MMA attendance and gate records, selling its initial stock of 42,000 tickets to fan club members alone, forcing another 13,000 tickets to be made available to the general public. And the gate for those 55,000 fans is expected to be in excess of $10 million.
The main card pay-per-view for UFC 129 airs an hour earlier – 9 p.m. Eastern – than the 10 p.m. start time that has been customary. The Spike TV prelims air at 8 p.m. Eastern, and the live Facebook stream will start at 6 p.m. Eastern.
UFC 129, which also is preceded by the company's first Canadian Fan Expo, features a main event welterweight title fight between champion Georges St-Pierre, considered the most popular athlete in Canada, and challenger Jake Shields. The co-main event is the UFC's first featherweight title fight, pitting champion Jose Aldo against Ontario's Mark Hominick. Also on the card, Hall of Famer Randy Couture fights for what he says will be the last time when he meets former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida.
The full fight card for UFC 129 is below.
Main Card
Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields
Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick
Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Jason Brilz
Randy Couture vs. Lyoto Machida
Mark Bocek vs. Ben Henderson
Spike TV Prelims
Nate Diaz vs. Rory MacDonald
Sean Pierson vs. Jake Ellenberger
Facebook Prelims
Claude Patrick vs. Daniel Roberts
Ivan Menjivar vs. Charlie Valencia
Jason MacDonald vs. Ryan Jensen
John Makdessi vs. Kyle Watson
Yves Jabouin vs. Pablo Garza
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