UFC, Meta Agree to Broadcast MMA Events on UFC Fight Pass in VR

History will be made!

Tomorrow night,
#LFA144 is set to be UFC’s first live Combat Sports event in
@Meta’s
Horizon Worlds 🌎

— UFC (@ufc)
October 13, 2022

It appears the unorthodox meeting between Meta executives including
Mark Zuckerberg and Ultimate Fighting Championship brass bore some
fruit.

The UFC
announced on Thursday that it has entered into a partnership
with Meta to run events on its Horizon World service. Live MMA
events from UFC Fight Pass will air on VR, and they will be
viewable through Meta Quest VR headsets. The system will run
through VR180, which is a format that gives fans a 180-degree view
of the arena. The first fight card from the partnership will be
LFA
144, which takes place on Oct. 14 at the Sanford Pentagon in
Sioux Falls, S.D.

“We are excited to offer an unprecedented level of engagement for
Fight Pass subscribers and MMA fans around the world by producing a
live MMA event in virtual reality,” the vice-president and general
manager of UFC Fight Pass, Crowley Sullivan, said in a statement.
“With Meta providing the VR platform and YBVR lending their
production expertise, we’re confident this will be a great
experience for fight fans.”

This agreement comes together following an unusual occurrence at
UFC Fight Night 211 on Oct. 1, in which the UFC disallowed all
media from attending the live event inside the UFC Apex. Instead,
the fan-free building played host to Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla
Chan, and various other Meta executives. Under the regulations of
the Nevada State Athletic Commission, organizations are required to
provide access to media for weigh-ins, but they do have the ability
to bar media from the events themselves – provided it receives NAC
clearance.

LFA 144’s main card will air starting at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, and
its six-fight billing will be broadcasted in its entirety on the VR
service as well as UFC Fight Pass as normally. The headliner will
see Muin
Gafurov vie for the vacant bantamweight title against Diego Silva
– although the latter will be ineligible to claim it after missing
weight by 2.6 pounds. In addition to it being viable live on VR,
fans can also access the event through Horizon Worlds from Oct. 23
to 27. The Horizon Worlds app is free for download in the Meta
store, and the show can be found through this
link.

According to the release, those watching through the headsets will
be able to engage with other fans in real time, while having the
ability to access “unprecedented VR views” of the matches. Other
future events have not yet been announced, but the company promises
similar events from additional leagues through UFC Fight Pass.