CBS to air the Emelianenko vs. Rogers Fight on National TV
by Ian James
Dana White isn’t going to like the latest MMA news that broke on CBSsports.com today. UFC’s nemesis, Strikeforce, and CBS have struck a deal to bring the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers fight to national television on the CBS network.
The Russian heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko, is arguably the biggest star in MMA and Dana White did everything in his power to bring him to the UFC. Unfortunately, Emelianenko decided to go another direction and signed with Strikeforce in a highly publicized contract war.
The fight between Rogers and Emelianenko is scheduled for November 7th of this year and will be shown live on CBS, the first time an MMA event will be shown on network TV since early last year. The Strikeforce promotion will air four fights on the telecast but the card has yet to be set for that event. There has also been no venue announced but seeing as how this mega-event is now going to be on national television, Strikeforce can sit back and watch the offers roll in.
This isn’t the first time CBS has aired an MMA event. They carried three events that were promoted by EliteXC, which has since folded but the events themselves drew strong ratings.
The last event that was held in October 2008 had more viewers in the 18-34 demographic than college football and the baseball playoffs according to CBS.
With Emelianenko on the card, this fight will be one of the highest drawing MMA events in history. The Russian is one of, if not the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Many fight fans were critical of him joining the Strikeforce promotion company as it is widely agreed upon that the UFC has the best fighters in the world and would give Emelianenko the strongest competition.
Regardless, this is a big day for Strikeforce and CBS and as a fight fan, I can’t wait to see Fedor back in the ring.
