Cage Warriors Fighting Championship, the Irish-owned and UK-based mixed martial arts promotion, has signed an exclusive broadcast deal with the USA Today Sports Media Group.
The deal will see MMAJunkie.com, USA Today’s MMA platform, provide free live online streams of all 17 Cage Warriors shows in 2012, a schedule which includes events in Dublin, London, Kiev, Budapest and Dubai.
Cage Warriors, which is owned by Cork native Graham Boylan, has expanded rapidly in recent months, with Boylan leading the organisation’s charge to the forefront of the sport in Europe since he assumed control in 2010.
CWFC has been a prolific breeding ground for some of MMA’s top fighters in the last ten years. Most recently, Cork-based welterweight Jake Hecht was snapped up on a four-fight deal by the UFC following two impressive Cage Warriors victories in 2011.
The organisation’s deal with USA Today comes just weeks after they announced a lucrative partnership with Sky Sports, who will have exclusive UK television broadcast rights to Cage Warriors events this year.
“We’re excited to be bringing more great fights to our MMAJunkie.com community,” said MMAJunkie.com editor-in-chief and co-founder Dann Stupp. “Our past Cage Warriors streams have been a big hit and we look forward to streaming even more.”
Cage Warriors comes to Dublin for the first time next May, while the first CWFC show of the year will take place in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on February 11 when ex-UFC lightweight Kyle Watson tackles Finnish 27-year-old Juha-Pekka Vainikainen in the Fight Night 3 main event.
Cage Warriors boss Graham Boylan said: “To have one of the biggest MMA websites in the world partner with Cage Warriors is a big deal to our team. It shows that Cage Warriors is a promotion that ranks with the best when MMAJunkie.com decides to be our exclusive partner.
“Cage Warriors will showcase the fighters to the rest of the world and open the eyes of the bigger organisations to the talent that’s out there as we are one of the top feeder shows and will continue to grow talent for the big guns. We are very proud to say our media partner is MMAJunkie.com and the USA Today Sports Media Group.”
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