Despite rumblings an agreement wouldn’t be reached, this Saturday’s UFC 234 card will air on DirecTV after all.
That’s according to MMANews’ Damon Martin who notes that while the UFC has come to terms with DirecTV, they still need to sign a long term deal. DirecTV is the leader in pay-per-view distribution in the United States and is typically what would air in bars and restaurants. Prior to this agreement, the UFC was telling fans to purchase the pay-per View through UFC.tv, Amazon or in the Playstation or the XBOX store.
UFC president Dana White made an announcement on his Twitter account that the Las Vegas based promotion has come to terms on a one-event deal.
In addition White mentioned that a long term deal with DirecTV should be announced in the coming weeks. The UFC came to a five year rights agreement with ESPN last year. As a result, White said that negotiations with pay-per-view providers would be closer to 30% revenue split than the typical 50%. No word on if that played a role in the negotiations which went sour earlier this week.
UFC 234 emanates from the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia this Saturday night. The pay-per-view broadcast is set to air at 10 p.m ET/7 p.m. PT. The preliminary card airs at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN, while the exclusive Fight Pass Prelims air at 6:30 p.m. ET. The main event features Robert Whittaker defending his middleweight title against Kelvin Gastelum. The co-main event pits former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva against rising star Israel Adesanya. Contender Series winner Devonte “King Kage” Smith headlines the prelims as he faces off against Dong Hyun Ma in a lightweight matchup. Lando Vannata faces Marcos Rosa in the main event on UFC Fight Pass.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 2/8/2019.