MMA coming to SPIKE TV

With the succes of the UFC and SPIKE TV's The Ultimate Fighter they have signed a contract to bring MMA to cable television. This past spring a live MMA fight was broadcast for the 1st time in the United States when the finale of the Ultimate Fighter brought to us Diego Sanchez in his victory over Kenny Florian and Forrest Griffin in his victory over Stephan Bonner. Diego and Forrest were named the ultimate fighter and given a contract to fight in the UFC, Forrest went on to win his first fight and Diego will fight in the upcoming PPV in August. Rich Franklin also fought on the card against a legend in the sport, Ken Shamrock. Franklin was able to defeat Shamrock and go on to fight for, an win, the UFC championship in the 185 pound division over Evan Tanner.

SPIKE TV will have 2 new programs in addition to the 2nd season of the ultimate fighter, they will air during the month of August and hopefully become a staple of SPIKE and cable television.

Unleashed - Premier airs July 25th at 10:05 Nashville time (after wrestling).
This 1st installment of unleashed will feature the 2 championship fights from this past spring and 2 other fights from the finale card that were not aired.
Diego Sanches vs Kenny Florian
Forrest Griffin vs Stephan Bonnar
Ales Karalexis vs Josh Rafferty
Mike Swick vs Alex Schoenauer
If you've never seen an Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight I would stongly urge you to not miss this. The Forrest fight is one of the best and features 2 competetors who just will not quit.
The 2nd installment will air August 1st and feature 5 fights. The other fights from the finale card...
Chris Leben vs Jason Thacker
Chris Sanford vs Josh Koscheck
Lodune Sincaid vs Nate Quarry
and 2 fights from Ivan Salaverry, his fights with Joe Riggs and Tony Fryklund.
Unleashed will air every Monday and it looks to feature great fights from the UFC's history.

Ultimate Fight Night - Premier airs August 6th, 8pm Nashville time.
This program will be live MMA fights brought to us by the UFC . This first installment will feature the following fights.
Ivan Salaverry vs Nathan Marquardt
Stephan Bonnar vs Sam Hoger
Kenny Florian vs Alex Karalexis
Mike Swick vs Keith Rockel
Josh Koscheck vs Pete Spratt
Nate Quarry vs Pete Sell
Chris Leben vs Patrick Cote
Drew Fickett vs Josh Neer
This looks to be a pretty good fight card with a lot of up and comers who are not making all the money and trying to break their way in to the big show.

This will all be mixed in with the 2nd season of The Ultimate Fighter also to air on SPIKE TV during the month of August.