A historic UFC fight taking place at the White House coincides with President Donald Trump's birthday on June 14, 2026, and the 250th anniversary of the country a few weeks later.
That fight is expected to attract plenty of attention and TV viewers, but may have been upstaged by a rival outfit a month before the event takes place.
Netflix Breaks MMA Record
UFC, which is owned by TKO Group Holdings (NYSE:TKO), is the best-known mixed martial arts league and holds records for pay-per-view events, as well as having a massive $7.7 billion contract with media giant Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY).
Most Valuable Promotions, co-founded by Jake Paul and recognized for its boxing events, recently set the MMA record for viewership. A card highlighted by the return of Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano to MMA streamed on Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) on Saturday, May 16.
That fight marked the first live MMA fight to stream on Netflix and the first MMA event for Most Valuable Promotions.
The event was a success with Deadline reporting the fight having an average of 12.4 million viewers on Netflix and a peak of around 17 million viewers for the main event.
With average viewership of 9.3 million in the U.S. and a peak of 11.6 million viewers, the fight was the most-watched in U.S. MMA history, according to the Associated Press.
The previous record was UFC on Fox 1 from 2011, which had 8.8 million U.S. viewers.
Most Valuable Promotions said it is reviewing its MMA options with Netflix and other distribution partners. The company said it has other options outside of Netflix, including Amazon and Fox, according to ESPN.
"We've received an overwhelming amount of interest from investors, strategic partners and fighters who want to be involved with MVP and the future of MVP MMA," a statement from Most Valuable Promotions said.
Bad News for UFC, President Trump
Most Valuable Promotions proving successful at the MMA model with a record-breaking debut could be bad news for UFC. Especially since the company has focused on being fighter-friendly with pay and benefits, and its first card featured several former UFC champions.
The upcoming June 14 fight takes place on a Sunday at 8 p.m. ET and will stream on Paramount+ and air on the CBS broadcast channel. Strong viewership is expected, given the politics involved and the celebration for Trump.
The UFC Freedom 250 fight card features several title bouts and well-known names, but may fail to bring in outside viewers who aren't familiar with the sport.
Along with potentially being overshadowed in the ratings by a rival upstart, TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro previously predicted spending $60 million or more on the fight, with $30 million made in sponsorship revenue. The fight company expects to lose $30 million or more, but still sees the event as a key marketing opportunity.
“This is going to be enormous in terms of attention, in terms of earned media, in terms of our fans being happy," Shapiro previously said.
Shapiro’s comments on losing $30 million from the fight could be a key standing ground for investors, who will be hoping the fight brings in money to the top and/or bottom line in other ways. This could be sponsorships signed for longer than one fight or increased attendance at future UFC fights.
Since grabbing the rights to UFC matches, Paramount Skydance has posted strong viewership, including 4.96 million streaming views on Paramount+ for UFC 324 and 2.47 million TV viewers on CBS for UFC 326, according to FrontOfficeSports.
Trump and UFC expect a huge spectacle for UFC Freedom 250, but they may have just been upstaged by Netflix and Most Valuable Promotions ahead of the event.
Photos: Shutterstock
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