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Because the UFC enters a vital juncture in its historical past, the stakes have by no means been greater. With its present broadcast take care of ESPN set to run out on the finish of 2025, the promotion actively seeks to greater than double its earlier contract, concentrating on a staggering $1 billion per yr in its subsequent U.S. media rights settlement. The competitors is fierce, with ESPN’s renewal talks reportedly the furthest alongside. Nonetheless, Amazon Prime and Netflix are additionally vying for a chunk of the motion. Amazon, specifically, is alleged to be eyeing the UFC’s profitable pay-per-view enterprise. In the meantime, Warner Bros. Discovery looms as a wildcard that would upend the negotiations.

This unprecedented battle for UFC’s broadcast rights comes at a time when the sports activities media panorama is shifting quickly. ESPN, FOX, and Warner Bros. Discovery are launching a joint sports activities streaming service, whereas Netflix’s $5 billion WWE deal and the NBA’s multi-network method have set new benchmarks for sports activities content material worth. For the UFC, maximizing its model’s enchantment and mainstream attain is crucial to justify its billion-dollar ambitions.

The Star Equation: Sean O’Malley and Kayla Harrison as Champions

Central to the UFC’s negotiating energy is the drawing capacity of its champions, notably in divisions that drive pay-per-view buys and mainstream consideration. On this context, the query isn’t simply who wins within the cage, however who finest serves the UFC’s industrial pursuits because it courts the world’s greatest media corporations.

Sean O’Malley, along with his flamboyant type, crossover enchantment, and social media savvy, has already confirmed himself a bona fide star. His knockout of Aljamain Sterling and subsequent title run ushered in what many known as the “Suga Period,” injecting new life into the bantamweight division and attracting a youthful, digitally native viewers. O’Malley’s polarizing persona, half Gen Z icon, half showman, makes him a advertising dream, whilst he divides hardcore followers and purists.

On the ladies’s facet, Kayla Harrison is the UFC’s most bankable new asset. A two-time Olympic judo gold medalist, Harrison has been extensively tipped to dominate the ladies’s bantamweight division in 2025 and past. Her athletic pedigree and undefeated aura place her as a possible crossover star, able to headlining pay-per-views and drawing mainstream sports activities protection. If Harrison claims the bantamweight title, she may turn into the face of ladies’s MMA at a time when the UFC is searching for to showcase its depth and variety to potential broadcast companions.

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If Sean O’Malley reclaims and retains the bantamweight championship towards Merab Dvalishvili, the UFC stands to learn in a number of key methods. O’Malley’s star energy interprets on to pay-per-view buys, social media engagement, and mainstream media protection, all vital metrics for streaming giants like Amazon and Netflix, who’re evaluating not simply the UFC’s hardcore fanbase however its potential to drive subscriber progress and digital engagement.

Whereas Merab Dvalishvili is a revered champion and a relentless competitor, his type and profile don’t supply the identical industrial upside as O’Malley’s. Dvalishvili’s dominant wrestling and workmanlike method, although beloved by purists, have but to seize the mainstream creativeness. If he continues his reign, the UFC dangers shedding among the momentum and crossover enchantment that O’Malley brings to the desk, doubtlessly weakening its hand in negotiations with media giants searching for star-driven content material.

Kayla Harrison’s ascension to the ladies’s bantamweight throne can be equally important for the UFC’s broadcast ambitions. The ladies’s divisions have traditionally produced among the promotion’s greatest stars, assume Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes, and Harrison has the credentials and charisma to observe of their footsteps. Her dominance and Olympic pedigree supply a compelling narrative for broadcasters wanting to market elite feminine athletes to a world viewers.

The Backside Line: Star Energy Fuels Billion-Greenback Desires

Because the UFC navigates its most essential broadcast negotiation so far, the identification of its champions will play a pivotal position in shaping the promotion’s worth proposition. Retaining Sean O’Malley as bantamweight champion and crowning Kayla Harrison as the ladies’s bantamweight queen would give the UFC two marketable, mainstream-ready stars on the high of its marquee divisions. This star energy is exactly what the UFC wants to maximise its leverage with ESPN, Amazon, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Discovery because it chases a billion-dollar-a-year deal.

Within the high-stakes world of sports activities media, personalities promote, and the UFC’s future could properly hinge on who holds its most coveted belts when the subsequent contract is signed.