"The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale" Will Stream All Preliminary Fights On Facebook

I have to admit, fans and friends, I was a little let down by the news that today’s “Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale” event wouldn’t feature any free preliminary fights. I understand that “Prelims LIVE” specials are usually reserved for big Pay-Per-Views, but still, I’ve gotten many hours of enjoyment out of watching the ufc free on Facebook. Much to my surprise, the UFC recently made an eleventh-hour announcement that all six preliminary fights from today’s show will indeed air live on Facebook. Here are all the details.

The news comes to us via the UFC’s official Twitter account. The expected start time of the free Facebook preliminaries is 6:30 PM ET.

The six scheduled fights are as follows: Jeremy Stephens vs. Danny Downes, Josh Grispi vs. George Roop, Scott Jorgensen vs. Ken Stone, Reuben Duran vs. Francisco River, Shamar Bailey vs. Ryan McGillivray, and Clay Harvison vs. Justin Edwards.

And now, here’s a little information on some of the most-interesting fighters of this free preliminary broadcast.

Jeremy Stephens has been competing in the UFC since 2007, and has currently won three out of his last four fights, with two stoppages. Most recently, Stephens spoiled the Lightweight debut of Welterweight standout Marcus Davis by KO’ing Davis late in the third round.

Josh Grispi was once thought of as the last great challenge to current UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo, and was in fact scheduled to face Aldo at one time. However, a very one-sided loss to Dustin Poirer dashed any hopes of that championship opportunity ever coming to fruition. His opponent, George Roop, made plenty of waves near the end of the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion when he knocked out “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung, but was dominated by Mark Hominick in his UFC debut.

Finally, Scott Jorgensen is making his UFC debut at “The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale”. Jorgensen last fought at WEC 53, the final event the WEC would ever run. His opponent was Dominick Cruz, and the fight was for Cruz’s WEC Bantamweight Championship as well as the newly-minted UFC Bantamweight Championship. Jorgensen would end up losing a tough five-round war.

All in all, I’m pretty happy that I’m going to get more free preliminary fights. Remember, the prelim show isn’t my new “dark horse favorite” without reason. Time and time again, these fights continue to be entertaining and these fighters continue to impress. They’re no longer “just the prelims”, they give us an interesting look at stars both new and old, all of them fighting for their shot to get in or get back to the limelight. That tends to motivate a lot of people, which tends to result in some quality fights.

You really can’t go wrong with the UFC’s Facebook streams, which is why I think they’re doing them so often now. There are still a few occasional hiccups here and there, but far less than when they first started. In my own personal experience, the system has rarely crashed and just as rarely lagged. I’ve even gotten an HD or “HD-like” video when switching to full screen.

All in all, these are six free fights and all you need is a Facebook account. If you haven’t gotten one yet, now’s the time, even if it’s a fake one used solely to watch these fights. Trust me: they’re just that good.