White expects US network TV deal within a year

The Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White insists he expects a US network TV deal within a year.

White wants to use the network deal to ‘pay back the fans’.

“I guarantee you by September 15th of next year, we will be on network television, I’ll put on probably one [show] per quarter – that should have been on pay-per-view – on network TV,” he told the DAM Morning Show in Las Vegas yesterday.

The UFC are currently putting on more than one pay-per-view event per month and is keen to five back free fights to the fans.

He said: “That’s how I grew up. That’s how I became a big boxing fan. My uncles used to watch all the fights on ABC’s ‘Wide World of Sports,’ and I used to watch it with them, and I became a huge boxing fan. That’s my model. That’s what I’m going to build now here today.”

Tags: Dana White, UFC