MMA fans can now add another promotion to the list of organizations that will air events of DAZN because Jungle Fight has signed a 33 month deal with the platform. Other promotions such as Bellator MMA, Combate Americas, EFC Worldwide and the such also stream events live on DAZN.
This deal will see Jungle Fight air at least one card a month for 33 months, starting with an event this September.
Jungle Fight founder Wallid Ismail tells MMA Fighting that he is happy the promotion is working with such a great streaming service.
“We’re working with the biggest streaming service in the world now,” Ismail said. “The sport will finally be strong again in Brazil, and we’ll show that to the entire world. You usually just see the tip of the iceberg in Brazil, and now we’ll show the entire iceberg.”
The promotion has been running for over sixteen years now and has been the launching board for some of Brazil’s greatest MMA fighters. Some of the fighters who have competed under the Jungle Fight banner include Jose Aldo, Fabricio Werdum, Ronaldo Souza, Lyoto Machida, Paulo Costa, Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos, John Lineker, Renato Moicano, Bethe Correia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Amanda Ribas, Irene Aldana and Erick Silva among others.
The following is a press release issued about the deal:
Jungle Fight and DAZN Announce Partnership for Exclusive MMA Championships Broadcast
Agreement between brands lasts 33 months
DAZN will broadcast one Jungle Fight event per month
São Paulo, August 14, 2019 - Jungle Fight, the largest MMA event in Latin America, just got their broadcast rights acquired by DAZN. Following its 16-year tradition of launching champions and showing the best of brazilian MMA, Jungle Fight becomes the first brazilian sports event to be regular and broadcasted on the platform that offers the world's first live and on-demand sports streaming service.
To Wallid Ismail, visionary founder of Jungle Fight: “The quality of the fights, DAZN's entrepreneurial spirit in distributing sports in streaming has made this one of the most important events in Brazilian MMA in recent years. DAZN subscribers will have exclusive and regular access to fights, knockouts and submissions without comparison. In Jungle Fight, the fighter enters the ring to knock out or finish. A fighter who wants to win for points doesn't survive in the jungle. ”
DAZN premiered its broadcasts in 2016 and officially arrived in Brazil in may of this year. Since its creation, it transmits events of football, athletics, motorsport, basketball and tennis, among others. In the world of fighting, boxing, kickboxing and MMA are broadcasted. From September, DAZN will be home to Jungle Fight. The agreement between the companies lasts 33 months and DAZN will have the global broadcast rights, being one Jungle Fight event per month during the contract period.
“MMA is one of the fastest growing sports globally. In Brazil, it has even greater appeal because many of the greatest fighters in the world are brazilian. The partnership between DAZN and Jungle Fight, in addition to strengthening our proposal to broadcast quality MMA content, will bring a lot of excitement to fight lovers and boost our fight portfolio in Brazil. We are looking forward to start the broadcasts, ”says Bruno Rocha, DAZN Executive VP in Brazil.
The partnership with DAZN comes as an important result of a work of conception and execution of strategic planning started in 2017 in partnership with consultant Elton Simões, with the objective of transforming Jungle Fight into the largest export product of brazilian sport.
“I am very happy to have worked on this project for the last 3 years with the professional who revolutionized MMA on brazilian television, Elton Simões, creator of Canal Combate. To me, he's a television genius. He will continue as our consultant and lead the implementation of this new phase of Jungle Fight, ”said Wallid.
“The potential is inexhaustible. Jungle Fight has been chosen the fifth largest MMA event in the world for two times. I am sure that in no more than 3 years, Jungle Fight will be among the two or three most important MMA events in the world, ”adds Elton Simões.
