UFC, Samsung Announce Partnership to Stream Select Live Events via Virtual Reality

Some fans of the Ultimate Fighting Championship will have now have the option of watching live events via virtual reality.

The UFC and Samsung on Tuesday announced a partnership to stream select live events through Samsung’s Gear VR platform. The agreement will begin with UFC 212, which takes place on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro and is headlined by a featherweight championship clash between Jose Aldo and Max Holloway.

According to a release, “fans will witness this highly-anticipated event in high-quality 360-degree live stream and will have access to additional VR content, including pre-event and post-event show highlights with UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and interim UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway.”

However, Gear VR users in the United States and New Zealand will only have access to the UFC 212 Fight Pass prelims, not the pay-per-view main card or Fox Sports 1-televised prelims. Gear VR is currently available in 45 countries, according to the release.

“We’ve always felt that the potential of combining UFC events with virtual reality would give our fans the ultimate enhanced experience,” UFC Chief Operating Officer Ike Lawrence Epstein said. “We’re excited to partner with Samsung on this game-changing initiative to further revolutionize how fight fans consume our content and live events around the world.”

In addition to the UFC, Samsung is also partnering with the X-Games and Live Nation to stream live events from those organizations via Gear VR.