October 12, 2011 – This December 10th, the UFC returns to Toronto, Canada with UFC 140 – featuring Jon “Bones” Jones defending his light heavyweight title for the second time against former champ Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida along with the Nogueira brothers, Antônio Rodrigo and Antônio Rogério, taking on Frank Mir and Tito Ortiz respectively.

Now while those are reason enough to look forward to this card, there’s another big reason to pay attention to this card as it will also mark the world premiere of live UFC pay-per-views being made available through Microsoft’s Xbox Live platform.

UFC President Dana White first announced this convergence of the gaming and fight worlds this past summer at the E3 Conference in Las Vegas.

“There has never been a better time to be a UFC fan,” White said to the crowd in attendance. “As you know, we deliver the best fights in the world, and now XBOX will revolutionize how fans experience live events on television. You’ll get all the best fights, and compete with your friends…only on XBOX.”

Attending this past weekend’s UFC Expo in Houston, TXMMA.com got more detail from Xbox LIVE representatives regarding the functionality this latest development will offer fight fans / gamers everywhere.

In a nutshell and for lack of a more complicated explanation, this stuff is pretty cool.

Not only will you be able to order UFC events in full streaming HD quality, but you’ll be able to interact with your Xbox LIVE friends through a variety of ways: whether seeing who else ordered the event to competing with them via making fight predictions in real-time. Above and beyond that, you’ll also be able to able to pull up fight(er) statistics and additional content and watch them in split-screen format literally as the fights happen.

Want to know who’s got the reach advantage as Frank Mir and Big Nog walk into the cage? Or maybe you’d prefer to fill your time waiting for the PPV to start with pre-fight content like fighter interviews or weigh-in video.

Literally all that is at your fingertips. Or even hands-free through Kinect.

All in all, UFC on Xbox LIVE is being billed as the “ultimate fight center” for fans – aimed at taking fan interaction to the next level with access to live pre-event videos and a catalog of video on demand along with the interactive fight cards for all pay-per-view events.

Here’s a summary of what’s to be available upon the December release:

•         Live and On-Demand Video– Event previews, UFC Countdown, press conferences, weigh-ins, interviews, workouts, highlights, and more, together for the first time on your big screen.

•         Streaming HD Quality in 720p – UFC fans demand stunning HD viewing, and Xbox LIVE brings the most premium streaming HD to the big screen.

•         Pay-Per-View with Ease – The biggest pay-per-view fights available to all Xbox LIVE members in HD and SD pricing options. Purchase directly with your credit card, Microsoft Points not required.

•         Interactive Fight Card with Predictions – Size up the fighters with the tale of the tape and view their past fight results. Predict upcoming fights, compare results with friends for points and bragging rights, and see where you stand against them on the leaderboard, all accessible while watching the fight so you’ll never have to leave the excitement of the Octagon.

•         Control the action with Kinect – Focus on the fight instead of looking for the remote. Navigate through the video content, bring up the Interactive Fight Card, or play, pause, and rewind that big punch, kick or submission…all with the magic of Kinect.

Exclusive Screenshots of UFC on Xbox LIVE

UFC on Xbox Live Trailer (E3 2011)

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