UFC Rumors: Brandon Vera Dropping to Light Heavyweight to Face Wand Silva?

Let's start with Dana's big announcement—I truly believe that Dana had planned on announcing the UFC in New York. He made a rookie mistake and counted his chickens before they hatched. Now he is in a pickle, and he has to deliver something major to the fans.

If New York doesn't cooperate, Dana will have to go to plan B.

Dana knows he screwed up and unless he has a major announcement to make he needs to do something to make the fans forget about the announcement he now can't make.

How does a free event on Spike sound? He's even going to sweeten the deal and give us a PPV-quality bout for FREE! Suddenly people start forgetting about earth-shattering announcements that never happened.

July 19th is the tentative date for this free show on Spike. If right now your trying to remember what you're doing that night, let me help you out—Affliction. The date is the same night that Affliction: Banned is scheduled to happen.

That's not a coincidence.

Dana White has been accused of a lot of things, but sometimes you have to admit the guy knows what he's doing. During the CBS Elite fight Spike TV and the UFC presented a special on Chuck Liddell and followed it up with the Liddell vs. Silva fight. My TiVo was very busy that night.

White is looking to pull viewers away from Affliction's PPV by offering up a free show on Spike. Not just any free crap, but a card that would contain Silva vs. Vera or both fighters against different opponents. Anytime I get to see those two guys for free, I'm in.

It's an intriguing matchup at 205. Vera has always been the center of conversation in moving to Light Heavyweight. What better challenge then to give him "The Ax Murderer" as his first fight at 205? Both fighters are coming off of short outings in their last fights.

Competition is always a good thing, and in this case the fans may get more free fights. Personally, I will still watch the Affliction show and TiVo the Spike card if it happens. If the UFC starts challenging other promotions with free shows during their PPVs, maybe companies will start doing more shows on free TV.

Whatever trend emerges, as long as we get more free fights, the fans win.