Viaplay Group has extended its exclusive rights to show UFC, the world’s leading mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, in four Nordic countries in a new multi-year agreement. Fight fans in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway can look forward to more than 40 live UFC events on the Viaplay streaming service each year, including all UFC numbered events and Fight Nights.
Viaplay’s next UFC event will be “UFC Fight Night: Ankalaev vs. Walker 2” on January 13, followed by the year’s first numbered event, “UFC 297: Strickland vs. Du Plessis,” on January 20 from Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, headlined by a middleweight title bout between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis, and Raquel Pennington vs. Mayra Bueno Silva for the women’s bantamweight crown.
In addition to every main card fight, which will be shown with local language commentary, Viaplay will show preliminary bouts from all events when a Nordic fighter is competing. UFC’s current roster includes local stars such as Alexander Gustafsson, Pannie Kianzad and Josefine Knutsson (Sweden), Nicolas Dalby, Damir Hadžović and Mark Madsen (Denmark), and Jack Hermansson and Ivana Petrović (Norway).
“No MMA promotion attracts a bigger audience than UFC, in the Nordic region or worldwide. Extending our long-term partnership with UFC reflects our commitment to offering the most relevant sports to our viewers, and to supporting MMA’s ongoing growth. We look forward to bringing spectacular fight action to even more fans over the coming years on Viaplay as part of our unique live sports portfolio,” said Peter Nørrelund, EVP and Chief Sports & Business Development Officer at Viaplay Group.
David Shaw, Executive Vice President of International and Content at UFC, added: “We have had a long partnership with Viaplay and we really could not ask for a better counterpart to help grow our brand in the Nordics. Their passion and dedication to UFC has been instrumental to our business, and we look forward to continuing to build stars and deliver the best MMA events in the world to our fans in the Nordics.”