UFC is about to get a huge boost with casual sports fans thanks to $1.5 billion deal with ESPN

Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

• The UFC is moving from Fox Sports to ESPN in a five-year deal worth $ 1.5 billion.
• The move will likely introduce a new audience to the world of mixed martial arts and will give ESPN plenty of opportunities to promote its new product.
• Fights will appear on both ESPN and the network’s over-the-top service ESPN+ starting in 2019.

ESPN and the UFC have agreed to a five-year deal worth $ 1.5 billion that will bring mixed martial arts to the Worldwide Leader in Sports and quite possibly its biggest audience ever.

The deal is set to begin in early 2019, and includes both the previously announced agreement to bring fights to ESPN’s new over-the-top offering ESPN+ as well as live shows on the cable network. Thirty UFC Fight Night events will appear on ESPN platforms per year, with ten main cards on the network and the other 20 available on ESPN+. ESPN networks will also reportedly air the preliminary bouts of pay-per-view events.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: NBA ref explains why the James Harden step-back jumper isn’t traveling

See Also:

• In latest Draymond Green twist, Charles Barkley threatened to punch 74-year-old ESPN personality Papi Le Batard in an amusing voicemail
• ‘Fox & Friends’ rips Jemele Hill for winning journalism award while ‘unemployed’ even though she still works for ESPN
• The Rock reached out to his ‘bro’ Conor McGregor on Instagram — and the pair are gushing over each other’s work ethic

SEE ALSO: WWE took another huge step into the mainstream, agreeing to deal with Fox reportedly worth $ 1 billion