Once is a gift, or a chance to counterpromote the biggest boxing card of the year. Twice, on the other hand, is a pattern and something that UFC fans should thank the MMA gods for. UFC 104’s very potent undercard will be televised for free on SPIKE TV on October 24th. Here’s the news from MMA Weekly:

Spike TV on Monday announced that it will telecast live undercard bouts from UFC 104 on Oct. 24 at 9:00pm ET/PT from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif. The fights on Spike TV will include “The Ultimate Fighter 8” winner Ryan Bader, a rising star in the light heavyweight division, taking on Eric “Red” Schafer. The one-hour telecast will run commercial-free. The UFC 104 main card will run on pay-per-view at 10:00pm ET.

Spike TV telecast the prelims for UFC 103 on Sept. 19 drawing a robust 1.4 million viewers and placed No. 2 on cable with Men 18-34 in the timeslot.

A two-time NCAA Division I All-American wrestler at Arizona State University, Ryan Bader, fighting out of Tempe, Ariz., is 2-0 in the UFC and a perfect 10-0 in his mixed martial arts career. The 26-year-old light heavyweight, winner of the eighth season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” earned a unanimous decision win against veteran Carmelo Marrero in April. He now faces another experienced grappler in Eric “Red” Schafer. Fighting out of Milwaukee, Wis., Schafer is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and on a four-fight win streak, with two of his three UFC wins coming via submission. His most recent victory came via TKO against Antonio Mendes at UFC 93.

Last month, we saw the lightweight winner from The Ultimate Fighter 8 Efrain Escudero. This month, we get to see the light heavyweight winner, Ryan Bader. Bader reminds me so much of Josh Koscheck that it’s scary. He’s an all-american wrestler that understands how to use his skills in the octagon. However, he needs to develop a striking game to complement the ground game that he has spent his entire life honing. Much like Koscheck, who trains at The American Kickboxing Academy in San Diego, Bader has a damn good camp in Arizona Combat Sports. ACS is home to such high level fighter as WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner, and UFC fighters C.B. Dollaway and Aaron Simpson.

As for the free fights, it’s an interesting new way to market the TUF winners. We’ve done a lot of talking on this site about what exactly it means to win the reality show at this point. No longer do these winners get to “warm up” to the Octagon by taking fights they can win. Instead, they get fights against other up and coming stars and we find out how far they are going to go very quickly. With these new fights that million of people are watching, Dana White and Joe Silva have a way to build names while testing the winners with strong opponents. After all, how many people knew Escudero’s name before 103?

UFC 104 is headline by Lyoto Machida defending the light heavyweight champion against former PRIDE GP winner Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.