UFC on FX: Why Partnership with Fox Is Important Step for UFC

When Melvin "The Young Assassin" Guillard faces off with Jim Miller at UFC on FX tonight, it will mark the continuation of a new era for the UFC.

The UFC had already been rising at an alarming rate before its seven-year deal with Fox, soaring past boxing and becoming the most popular fighting venture in the world.

Now, as fights kick off on FX, Fuel TV and Fox Sports Net, the UFC has a partnership that will boost it even more into the mainstream.

UFC and MMA fans should be ecstatic. This just goes to show that the UFC is here to stay, if we needed any more proof. As boxing struggles to put together a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., the UFC rarely disappoints in that regard, continuously pitting some of the top fighters in the world against each other for us all to gawk at.

Even before the partnership with Fox, the UFC's formula was simple: give the fans what they want. The difference between boxing and the UFC right now is that UFC fights generally live up to the pre-fight hype. Boxing has become so money-hungry, so concerned about building up a fight, that it has forgotten that the fight is the most important thing.

Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, has apparently held off on a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight because he's waiting for a 38,000-seat arena to be built. This comes after boxing fans have been waiting for years to see the two top boxers in the world touch gloves.

With the UFC, there is no pretense: what you see is what you get. Obviously, money is important to the UFC, but it hasn't forgotten what got it where it's at in the first place: the outstanding blend of fighting that it provides.

In the UFC's partnership with Fox, the UFC only continues its formula: making fights widely available while delivering time and time again.