Billionaire Mark Cuban Launches MMA Venture

Mark Cuban - the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks has formally launched his Mixed Martial Arts venture. Speaking from Dallas, Cuban announced the formation of HDNet Fights, which will televise MMA across North America every Friday on his high-definition subscription cable channel, HDNet.

The plan is to show 24 Mixed Martial Arts events in the upcoming year. Also, a new magazine-style program called “Inside MMA” will be shown every Friday and be hosted by Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten. The show begins this week.

HDNet Fights will working with other promotions such as the IFO and Art of War, however, Cuban’s new group will put on shows of its own. The first Cuban promotion will be at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas on October 13th.

Cuban’s MMA operation will be managed by Guy Mezger. Mezger has had a high profile in MMA dating back to fighting at UFC 4: Revenge of the Warriors in 1994. The Lion’s Den fighter spent a large chunk of his career in Japan fighting under the Pride and Pancrase banners. He is probably best remembered for his UFC clashes with Tito Ortiz.

Mezger announced more details of the promotion’s debut card. It will take place at the same venue as the recent Art of War 3: USA vs Brazil show. That card, headlined by Pedro Rizzo’s TKO victory over Jeff Monson and attracted a bumper crowd to the American Airlines Arena.

HDNet Fights’ first event will be headlined by veteran Erik Paulson taking on Jeff Ford.

Erik Paulson is coming out of retirement to take the fight. When active, he spent most of his career fighting for Shooto. Jeff Ford is best known as a kickboxer.

Also on the card is former UFC heavyweight title contender Justin Eilers who will be taking on Justin Howard. Since losing three UFC fights in a row against Paul Buentello, Andrei Arlovski and Brandon Vera respectively, Eilers put together a seven fight unbeaten run before losing out to Pedro Rizzo at Art of War 1 in March 2007. Art of War 1 saw the debut of his opponent Justin Howard. Howard lost, but evened up his record with a submission victory at Art of War 2.

Probably the stand out fight from further down the card is the clash between Sammy "The Squeeze" Morgan and Pete Spratt. Spratt has been in with some tough opposition lately - losing out to soon to be World Champ Matt Serra in The Ultimate Fighter Season 4: Episode 7 and the red hot rising star Marcus Davis at UFC 69: Shootout. He will hope to overcome the submission skills of “The Squeeze” to get his career back on track.

The details of future names who will feature on HDNet Fights are not yet clear. Last week, Cuban announced that his company had been in talks with White Chocolate - the management team who represent Fedor Emelianenko. The name of Josh Barnett has also been mentioned. Cuban certainly has the money to attract big names and he appears determined to make his mark on the world of Mixed Martial Arts.