UFC goes all-in with Meta marriage

Now we know what kind of AI will power new fighter rankings.

The least surprising yet still eye-raising announcement was made by TKO on Wednesday morning: a marriage between UFC and Meta for all sorts of wearable tech, data mining, AI ventures, and social media cooperation.

The development is being portrayed as focusing on Meta products in relation to fan usage and content creation.

From the press release:

“As UFC’s first Official Fan Technology Partner, Meta will collaborate with UFC to use Meta’s technology platforms, services, and products, including Meta AI, Meta Glasses, Meta Quest, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, to immerse fans deeper into UFC content than ever before. In addition, Meta will become the Official AI Glasses Partner of UFC and will work with UFC to creatively use their groundbreaking AI glasses in compelling ways at UFC events.

”As the Official Fan Technology Partner of UFC, Meta will be integrated into UFC assets with extensive activations in all Pay-Per-Views and Fight Nights, including brand placement in the world-famous Octagon®, numerous broadcast features, and creative in-arena fan experiences.”

I expect to see fighters, coaches, seconds, and announcers wearing Meta glasses for sponsored promo spots on UFC events. (Think: Meta-flavored Fighting Nerds glasses.)

I would also expect to see Meta wearable tech at the UFC Performance Institute and for the filming of promotional materials.

A year ago, Meta Quest released this promo video on YouTube for Virtual Reality on UFC Fight Pass:

An interesting question: Will various state athletic commission judges be nudged or pressured into wearing Meta gear during UFC events?

A UFC spokesperson told CNBC that negotiations between UFC & Meta started in the second half of 2024 and that it is a substantial investment.

The announcement is gaining big press coverage on Wall Street.

But wait, there’s more

The biggest development for fans and fighters is UFC’s announcement of Meta getting involved in the process of determining fighter rankings.

Hopefully, there won’t be ghost or shadow fighters on the rankings. One can only hope.

When Meta announced Dana White as the newest board member last January, it drew a vociferous response. Nate Wilcox was busy reading the tea leaves and gave a heads-up on where things were heading.

There’s a growing chorus of Trump-aligned conservative activists who have been pleading with the Feds to go after Mark Zuckerberg and have accused his political U-turn of being a conservative-friendly ally as completely fake and phony.

Now, we have a business tie-up between one of President Trump’s best friends and one of the key players in US technology.

The Feds have already been trying to get their claws into Google for some time, and so far, proposed antitrust measures seem somewhat narrower in scope in terms of how Google will be punished. Meta does not want to be put through the same ringer.

Enter Dana White, today’s pitchman and our generational version of Billy Mays for brutes.

In October of 2024, Dana telegraphed his discussions with Mark Zuckerberg on how to “fix” the current UFC rankings system.

How will the new AI system determine the future prospects of UFC fighters? And how much Meta money will fighters receive in the form of sponsorships in this deal?

This new UFC/Meta marriage was expected but still a jarring development in the sense that it’s yet another example of huge combat sports consolidation involving the oligarch and billionaire class.

Fight sport is a very lucrative play toy, and we are just the guinea pigs voluntarily contributing to the data mining process.

Now, the big question: Will the UFC/Meta marriage include digital rights to stream future UFC fight events?

We will cover all aspects of this developing story on the next edition of The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.