The UFC have announced an unprecedented new partnership that will see Invicta Fighting Championships air live on the UFC’s internet subscription channel Fight Pass. The distribution deal was announced this past Thursday.
In addition, Fight Pass will also feature previous Invicta shows with the all-female MMA promotion currently expected to first appear on Fight Pass later this Summer. Until now the UFC has never before worked with another promotion in any capacity without having first purchased the company and its catalogue of footage.
Following the UFC’s consumption of Strikeforce in 2011, Invicta was formed and has since hosted a wealth of MMA’s best female contenders on all-women cards. A number of the promotion’s standout contenders would go on to fight in the UFC with Invicta president Shannon Knapp fully supportive of those who wished to leave in favor of the world’s leading MMA promotion, a number of who will compete on the up coming season of The Ultimate Fighter where the likes of Felice Herrig, Carla Esparza, Bec Rawlings and Scotland’s Joanne Calderwood will battle to be crowned the first UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion.
Via MMAFighting.com: “Now that we have a stable foundation, we’re going to increase the number of events,” said Invicta promoter Shannon Knapp. “We want to see how things go, and look at the frequency (of live shows). Those are things we’re still ironing out. We’re capable of doing more events and we’re looking to ramp things up. We can put on cards as often as they want. I think it’s going to be a great thing.”
“We’ve never done this with a company before unless we’ve bought them,” said UFC Chief Content Officer Marshall Zelaznik. “We’re not buying. We’re truly a distributor. It’s pretty historical in the way UFC has operated.”
It was added that Invicta would maintain full control of their production.
“We’ve been working with Shannon for a while trying to come up with a way to have Invicta events within Fight Pass,” said Zelaznik, whose duties include heading up Fight Pass. “We’ve recently come to terms on that. It’s a mutli-year deal, multi-fights. Our commitment to Shannon is every event they produce will air on Fight Pass around the world. Everyone has looked at UFC as a promoter, but now you can look at us as a distributor as well for broadcasting at this point. We’re hoping for the first event later this summer. Shannon’s working hard locking down the date and we’re super thrilled about it, everyone from Dana (White) and Lorenzo (Fertitta) on down. Everyone is excited to bring Invicta to Fight Pass and bring that value to our fans.
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity for the athletes and for Invicta, teaming up with the UFC and having there marketing power behind us, giving us exposure to UFC fans,” said Knapp.
Interestingly, MMA’s own female wrecking machine Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino may now feature under the UFC banner, albeit via an Invicta card. The promotion’s inaugural Featherweight Champion and former Strikeforce Featherweight Champion is in high demand by fans who wish to see the Brazilian take on the undefeated UFC Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey, however the UFC are yet to show interest in signing ‘Cyborg’ (12-1-1NC) who is undefeated since 2005 with a fearsome 13-fight undefeated run featuring 11 finishes.
