UFC and ESPN in talks?

That's the word in this multichannel article

This would not impact the SpikeTV negotiations...

But Spike may not be the only cable network offering UFC content. The organization is in discussions with HBO, and has had preliminary discussions with ESPN, about securing a distribution deal for additional live events and other UFC content, according to executives from both networks. ESPN, for one, has stepped up its coverage of the UFC, televising the weigh-in of the May 26 UFC 71 main event bout between Chuck Lidell and Quinton Jackson, profiling the
UFC on the cover of ESPN the Magazine and televising highlights of UFC events on its signature SportsCenter show. UFC executives could not be reached for comment at press time.

Next thing on UFC's to-do list is petitioning the government to extend the year by 3 months and each day by an extra 4 hours.

Seriously, if the oft rumored HBO deal were to come to pass and if the SpikeTV deal gets done which features more live events for that network and if my worst nightmare of ESPN doing UFC shows were to also happen then UFC may actually produce more hours of TV than there are in a month when you also factor in PPV.

While I'm sure UFC higher-ups wouldn't see that as much of a problem, I just don't know if it makes good sense to get that much programming.

In order to pull that off, you'd have to bring in a lot of fighters, and the more fighters in the promotion the further the talent level is going to drop because now you're employing guys who would otherwise have not been good enough for the UFC. This may result in a drop in bout quality although less talented fighters are almost more apt to be entertaining because they are more likely to do what pleases the crowd which is swing for the fenses. That's why the first Griffin-Bonnar fight was so much more awesome than the second because between the 2 fights, Forrest actually learned some strategy.

You would also need to increase the size of the television staff, even if HBO were to handle production itself. This includes announcers by the way otherwise UFC would significantly shorten Mike Goldberg's life by working him to death. Rogan has other projects so a new color guy would really need to be hired and Frank Mir seems a good choice to me and if Couture were to ever really retire, he'd also be awesome.

I want to say one more thing. I'm not against UFC events on ESPN, I just would want to burn a small village if the UFC were to be ESPN-ized which is to say blitzed with loud talking commentators who are x-fighters who don't have a clue how to be good on TV and often make themselves look like they never had a clue about how the sport works even if their resumes say otherwise. Replace fighters with players and UFC with NFL and tell me that's not ESPN to the letter.