The UFC is steaming toward its debut on Versus with a very solid co-main event combination. Brandon Vera and Jon Jones meet at light heavyweight and UFC.com announced heavyweights Junior Dos Santos and Gabriel Gonzaga will square off. Also featured are John Howard-Anthony Johnson and Eliot Marshall-Eliot Matyushenko. The March 21 card is going to be one of the first events at the newly renovated The Odeum in Broomfield, Colo.
This is wonderful but there’s still one huge issue to resolve, DirectTV’s snubbing of Versus. That’s a huge deal in a city like Las Vegas where most bars and restaurants use DirectTV and love holding UFC viewing parties. That’s a lot of eyes to ignore. There’s already considerable outrage in Sin City because the Mountain West Conference was dumb enough to place some of its games on Versus, meaning the city’s only real team, UNLV men’s basketball, is unavailable on television several times each season at those same meeting places.
SI.com Josh Gross tweeted earlier Wednesday that he’s hearing the DirectTV-Versus situation will be resolved by March. If you’re an MMA fan, you’d better hope that’s true. Versus is slated for lots of fights in 2010:
"Currently our deal (with Versus) is seven fights," WEC’s Peter Dropick told MMAJunkie. "That doesn’t mean we can’t do more, but we’re guaranteeing them seven fights, which is, we felt in our discussions with Versus, a good number. The UFC has two events on Versus, as well, so they’re going to be carrying nine fight cards within our family."
Tickets for UFC on Versus 1 go on sale Saturday. Dos Santos (pictured on the left) and Gonzaga were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 108.