In a break from the old routine, UFC Fight Night 38 will air on a Sunday night on FOX Sports 1 rather than the usual Wednesday or Saturday night slots.
News of the day change emerged yesterday when it was revealed that a rematch between Dan Henderson and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua was being targeted for a Fight Night event in Brazil on that date.
Initially there were concerns that the UFC was being moved in order to accomodate a Motocross event on Saturday night instead, but FOXSports.com’s Mike Chiapetta has since stated that the move was instead motivated by an interest from the UFC and FOX to try out a Sunday night due to it traditionally being the most watched night in television.
It’s an interesting choice, but while on the surface it may seem appealing to target a night when most people are at home watching TV, the problem is that it means that they will have to compete with numerous big shows that air on that evening.
At this stage it looks like it’s just a one-off experiment to test the waters, so it shouldn’t be too disruptive and it’ll be interesting to see what kind of ratings it does end up pulling.
