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UFC Fight Pass Fixing It’s Identity Crisis
Streaming services are the future of the entertainment world. You hear that a lot, but they actually are the now. The monthly income of a subscription fee is invading every aspect of entertainment. From Netflix to Apple Music and to media like Rokfin (shameless plug), streaming services are the new way of consumption. That includes combat sports. The best being UFC Fight Pass. Fight Pass has more combat sports and more varied combat sports than other rivals like DAZN and Flo.
But UFC Fight Pass has been around for some time. It seems as if the platform is just hitting it’s stride, however. For the longest time, the UFC didn’t seem to know what exactly to do with Fight Pass. There were some cards, every card had the Fight Pass Prelims, but for the most part, it was the place where fans would see the old fights from past events.
But, since the start of the ESPN+ era, the UFC brass has seems to have figured out Fight Pass and its audience. UFC FightPass seems to have evolved from the old school fan to the hardcore fan, specifically combat sports as a whole. In 2020, we’ve seen boxing, Jiu Jitsu, lethwei, wrestling and more on Fight Pass. Then, of course, we have had loads of MMA as well. This has drawn a load of new fans from across sports to the streaming service.
With today’s report of new regional promotions heading to Fight Pass, the idea is becoming more and more apparent: Fight Pass is here to stay.
UFC Fight Pass Gobbling Up Everything It Can
In 2018, I wrote about the fragmentation issue in combat sports and how it was becoming an issue with fans having to fork out for DAZN, several PPVs, and more at the year’s end. I presented a one-stop-shop option for combat sports and didn’t even think it that option was Fight Pass. In hindsight, it was the obvious choice.
The relevant section from that old post is as follows:
You don’t have Virgin Records streaming and Sony Music streaming services. All of their music is distributed to Apple, Spotify and whoever else to have it all in one place. Fragmentation is at a minimum. For fight fans, you have all these promotions in different spots. There are a few companies that are insistent on keeping pay per views around, which is the equivalent of going to the store and buying a DVD.
There needs to be a distributor of fights all in one spot, not in 6 different spots. Companies also need to let go of ancient and out of date business practices that aren’t beneficial to the consumer. We need unification.
While we’re probably going to never be unified completely, UFC Fight Pass is helping calm some of the cost to being a fight fan. Having the UFC’s marketing brand behind the product and having promotions like LFA, Roy Jones Jr. Boxing, and WLC, everyone benefits. As the saying goes, a rising tide raises all ships. And with how the UFC is growing the sport of martial arts, everyone benefits, especially those in league with them.
While the combat sports world is still far off from unification, we are trending there and UFC Fight Pass is leading the way. Thanks for reading!
