Paramount Plus will soon become the exclusive home to the UFC
Paramount, which merged with Skydance just days ago, won't charge subscribers more for access to UFC fights. But it's still not clear whether UFC fights will be exclusive to Paramount Plus' spricier $12.99 per month Premium plan, or if $7.99 per month Essential subscribers will gain access, too. Paramount will also simulcast some of the events on CBS.
The Disney-owned ESPN currently holds the rights to the UFC, with its ESPN Plus streaming service airing events on a pay-per-view basis. As noted by CNBC, ESPN paid an average of $500 million annually for five years of UFC rights, while Paramount will pay around $1.1 billion every year.
ESPN's full-featured live streaming service makes its debut later this month and will include exclusive access to WWE events, such as WrestleMania.
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Yahoo
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- Yahoo
White House to host cage fight on July 4: UFC boss
The White House is to play host to a mixed martial arts bout on July 4 next year, the day the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, UFC boss Dana White said Tuesday. President Donald Trump has been a regular guest at the often-bloody contests, where fighters punch, kick and grapple with their opponent in a no-holds-barred battle to submission or knockout. Bringing the brutal combat sport to the center of US political power will mark a historic first. "It is definitely going to happen," White, a high-profile supporter of the US president, told CBS television. "I talked to him last night -- 'him' being the president -- and I'm flying out there at the end of this month, and I'm going to sit down and walk him through all the plans and the renderings, and we're going to start deciding what he wants and doesn't want." Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest and most successful organization in the burgeoning world of MMA, a blend of martial arts disciplines like jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, boxing and wrestling. Bouts take place in an eight-sided ring -- dubbed "The Octagon" -- bounded by a chainlink fence. With few exceptions -- like eye-gouging -- male and female fighters are allowed to employ almost any technique to attack their opponent. Fights often end with a prone fighter being pummeled in the face as they lie on the bloodied floor, before the referee steps in to stop the action. The shaven-headed White, who has regularly spoken warmly of Trump as both a friend and a political leader, said the president's daughter would be involved in organizing the Independence Day spectacle at the White House. "When (Trump) called me and asked me to do it, he said: 'I want Ivanka in the middle of this,'" White told CBS, whose parent company Paramount has just signed a $7.7 billion streaming deal with UFC. White took over the UFC in 2001 when it was a small, loss-making organization, shepherding it into one of the fastest-growing sports promotion companies in the world. The sport's popularity with young men -- a key demographic in the 2024 US election -- and Trump's long association with the UFC, have made the president a regular fixture at some of its more high-profile events, where he is greeted like a rock star. Its brutal nature and high injury rate mean the sport is controversial, with doctors decrying the potential for brain damage amongst fighters who are repeatedly hit in the head, though it has gained increasing mainstream acceptance in recent years. rg-hg/amz/aha
Miami Herald
7 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Here are the top games in Broward for the 2025 high school football season
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Time Magazine
8 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
White House to Hold UFC Fight on U.S.'s 250th Birthday
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will hold the first-ever professional mixed-martial arts fight at the White House during America's 250th birthday celebration next year. UFC CEO Dana White confirmed on Tuesday that the fight would take place on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. 'It is definitely going to happen,' he told the hosts of CBS Mornings. White said he already spoke with President Donald Trump, a long-time UFC fan and friend of the CEO, and will meet with Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump later this month to continue planning the event. 'When he called me and asked me to do it, he said, 'I want Ivanka in the middle of this,'' White said of the President, on CBS Mornings. 'So Ivanka reached out to me, and her and I started talking about the possibilities, where it would be and, you know, I put together all the renderings.' Trump told his supporters at an event in Iowa last month that he wanted to have a UFC fight at the presidential residence. 'We're going to have a UFC fight, think of this, on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there,' Trump said at the time. 'Dana's going to do it. Dana's great. One of a kind.' It is not yet clear which UFC fighters will participate in the showdown. White told The Associated Press Tuesday that it was too early to talk about the possible main event. Longtime UFC star Conor McGregor, who last fought in 2021 and visited the White House in March, expressed interest shortly after Trump spoke about a potential fight last month. 'I would be honoured! Count me in!' McGregor wrote on X. Since his last fight, McGregor was found liable for sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room in 2018 in a civil case last year. Trump has attended UFC fights during both his first and second terms. In April, the President went to a fight in Miami with several members of his Administration, including then-head of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The fight will be part of what the White House has said will be 'a full year of festivities' for the nation's 250th birthday. To plan the celebration, Trump formed a task force, called the 'Salute to America 250 Task Force.' 'Task Force 250 invites citizens to have a renewed love of American history, experience the beauty of our country, and ignite a spirit of adventure and innovation that will raise our nation to new heights over the next 250 years,' the website reads.
