UFC Whiffs on Oct. 3 Main Event Booking
This time around in Zuhosky's Take, Drew believes that the UFC made a major mistake in scheduling the new main event for Salt Lake City
UFC 332 is about three weeks away at this point. As has become customary, UFC 332 is scheduled to be streamed on Paramount Plus. What hasn't been customary up to the Oct. 3 event in Salt Lake City is the fact that the entirety of the main card is due to be aired on linear television by way of the CBS television network.
CBS airing UFC flagship events has happened a few times earlier this year, albeit only in a two-hour window comprised of the last of the evening's undercard fights and the first two bouts on the main card. In those cases, CBS would join the UFC coverage in-progress at 8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT on fight night.
That isn't to be the case at UFC 332 in Salt Lake City. Every single main card fight on that evening's show will be seen from beginning to end on The Tiffany Network. Simply put, if you have a TV and are in the United States, you can watch the UFC 332 main card in full starting at 8 pm ET.
Vacant Women's Flyweight Championship at Stake in UFC 332 Main Event
At the top of the bill on the first Saturday evening of October is a title fight in the UFC 332 main event. No. 1 contender Natalia Silva (20-5-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC) squares off against No. 8 contender Wang Cong (10-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC.) The prize these two competitors will be fighting for is the newly-vacant UFC Women's Flyweight Championship.
This title fight is an advertised maximum of five rounds at five minutes per round to close the evening's activities. Initially, Natalia Silva was set to verse now-former champion Valentina Shevchenko in the UFC 332 main event the first weekend of October.
Last weekend during the telecast of UFC Paris inside Accor Arena, the promotion announced a change in plans. Valentina Shevchenko was forced to withdraw from the UFC 332 main event in the wake of shoulder and back injuries. As a result of her withdrawal from UFC 332, Shevchenko is now no longer the champion at 125 lbs.
Brendan Schaub has Choice Words About UFC 332 Headliner
'In the days since the new UFC 332 main event was announced, the decision to place Wang Cong on the same fight as Natalia Silva has left pundits and fans alike scratching their heads. Earlier in the week, Brendan Schaub discussed the booking of the main event on Big Brown Breakdown.
"It's like the UFC got the ball to the one-yard line and said '(expletive deleted)' and gave up," Schaub said. "Everything was lining up for this to be a banger card for Salt Lake City. The undercard's fantastic."
After Schaub talked about the fights taking place ahead of the main event of UFC 332 on Oct. 3, he made remarks about the headliner that weekend.
"In hindsight, it's better for us that the pay-per-view model is not around for us anymore in America, but this is the byproduct," he continued. "Now that they know they have your money, they know that they don't have to bank on selling on $79.99 every month, this is the downside."
Questionable Booking for UFC 332 on CBS
As previously mentioned, UFC 332 serves as the first time that a UFC flagship event will have its main card airing on the CBS television network. With the card airing on CBS, it stands to reason that there will be viewers watching a UFC show for the first time.
The people who tune into UFC 332 on Paramount Plus are the people who tune into UFC events every week and those fans will always be there for the fights. In the case of someone possibly watching for the first time on CBS with UFC 332, these are the viewers that the promotion should be concentrating on.
First-time viewers are going to be critical for the UFC on Oct. 3. As such, the promotion hopes to get those novice audience members hooked on watching the fights. While having a vacant championship fight at the top of the bill would certainly help the cause, a contest pitting the No. 1 contender against the No. 8 contender may not be the answer.
CBS, as a network, is hoping that two variables work in their favor: The quality of the fights on the card and the Nielsen ratings. If the fights on the main card happen to be tedious, CBS' broadcast on Oct. 3 could be a ratings loser.
