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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC Fight Pass is branching out beyond just mixed martial arts, with the organization announcing on Thursday that they've added both Glory kickboxing's SuperFight Series and the Eddie Bravo Invitational jiu jitsu events into the fold for live event offerings.
The announcement was made Thursday evening by UFC SVP and Fight Pass General Manager Eric Winter during a media day in Los Angeles for the UFC Fight Night 84 event in London later this month, with the first Glory event coming to the streaming service in just two weeks.
"We are proud to announce our new partnerships with the Glory kickboxing and EBI Brazilian jiu-jitsu organizations," said Winter in a subsequent press release. "This is a huge development for Fight Pass. We haven't just added some kickboxing and some BJJ to Fight Pass – we partnered with leaders in both sports. Glory has established itself as the pinnacle of world kickboxing while EBI leads the way in exciting, fast-paced submission grappling. Both of these organizations are tremendous additions to Fight Pass."
Said Glory co-founder Scott Rudmann, "UFC Fight Pass is at the top of the global MMA world, and Glory is the world's leading kickboxing league. This is an unprecedented partnership that brings the best of MMA and the best of kickboxing together on a single platform that is available to fight fans around the world."
"The UFC Fight Pass partnership is nothing short of a dream come true," added Eddie Bravo. "UFC is responsible for the explosion of popularity for BJJ around the world, and having EBI on UFC's digital streaming service is the perfect fit for us. I am incredibly confident that MMA and jiu-jitsu fans will love the full-throttle entertainment EBI is going to deliver on UFC Fight Pass."
The two new promotions join Invicta FC, Pancrase, Victory FC, Shooto Brazil, Titan FC, BRACE MMA, and EFN with live events streaming on UFC Fight Pass. The first EBI event on UFC Fight Pass will stream live this April.
Penick's Analysis: This is an interesting development, though I'm not sure if there's enough of a crossover audience to make it necessarily the most beneficial for Glory in particular. Getting kickboxing fans who may not be MMA fans to pay for UFC Fight Pass might not be viable, though it could work for them in other ways. That said, getting both of these disciplines further exposure to current UFC fans and Fight Pass subscribers could be beneficial in building new fans of each, at least potentially. It's further sign of the UFC trying different things to add further value to their streaming service, and it's at the least an interesting move.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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