TikTok closes deal to broadcast UFC live

From now on, TikTok, in addition to being a platform for “funny” videos, will also broadcast live fights. The application has just signed a partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to broadcast the organization's events. The agreement between the companies will last for several years, according to the Chinese company that owns the application, ByteDance, and, for now, the financial terms of the contract have not yet been disclosed. The deal includes some weekly live broadcasts from UFC which should show what happens behind the scenes, as well as the interaction with the organization's fighters.

Currently, the UFC is the third most popular sports league on the Chinese app, and has more than 6,3 million followers. Harish Sarma, director of strategic partnerships at TikTok, says that the agreement between the companies should improve the experience of fight lovers with the events, especially at this time, when fans cannot go to the arenas. “We are excited to bring the action and excitement of the UFC inside and outside the Octagon to TikTok,” said the executive. For David Shaw, UFC's senior vice president of content, the partnership is extremely important for the content distribution ecosystem that the organization has been trying to create. According to him, the UFC's desire is to be everywhere there are MMA fans consuming content, and TikTok is an essential tool to open new paths and serve an increasingly larger and diverse audience.

With this agreement with Ultimate, the TikTok further reinforces its proximity to sports entities. At the beginning of February, UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) revealed that the application will be one of the sponsors of UEFA Euro 2020, which will take place this year between June 11th and July 11th.

New champion

Just over a week ago, the long-awaited UFC-260 took place, with the main fight being the duel between heavyweights, Miocic x Ngannou. Miocic was defending his title for the second time against the Cameroonian, who, as in the previous duel, which took place at the beginning of 2018, was considered the favorite, but on that occasion ended up being completely dominated by the Croatian-American during the 25 minutes of the fight.

However, this time the story was a little different. Once again considered the favorite for the duel, Ngannou promised to have improved a lot since the last time the fighters met, and had four consecutive victories against relevant names in MMA, such as Cigano, Velasquez, Rozenstruik and Blaydes. All of these victories were by knockout in the first round, and even more incredible was the triumph over Jairzinho after just 20 seconds. In this way, houses and best betting site They were buzzing with predictions for the duel, and the still champion, Miocic, was treated as the big underdog, while “The Predator” Ngannou had most of the predictions on his side.

As soon as the gong sounded, the difference in the Cameroonian's posture was noticeable, much calmer and more strategic, soon dominating the center of the octagon, causing Miocic, 13 kg lighter, to just dance around him. For much of the first round, Ngannou he put pressure on Miocic with extremely powerful punches and almost achieved the knockout after landing a beautiful sequence of blows, but the Croatian-American withstood the punishment well and proved once again that he wasn't one of the best in history for nothing. In the second round, in the first minutes, Ngannou landed powerful blows in a brief exchange, and Miocic ended up feeling the Cameroonian's heavy blows, taking a knockdown. After a brief period, he managed to get up and land a nice punch on his opponent, but Ngannou ended the fight with a left cross and the then champion was knocked out. And, from now on, the UFC giants category has a new king, and perhaps the most frightening and brutal fighter of recent times.