This weekend’s UFC 212 will be a landmark event, and not just became Jose Aldo and Max Holloway will meet to determine who the real featherweight champion is. Samsung and the UFC announced today that the fight promotion will be coming to VR, by way of VR Live Pass on the Gear VR headset. Other content, including X Games Minneapolis, will also stream on the service.
According to the press release, posted on the UFC’s official website, “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 José Aldo and interim UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway.”
The Virtual Reality stream will be available to viewers where ever Samsung VR is available. However, users in the U.S. and New Zealand are excluded from the full UFC VR event, and will have access only to the Fight Pass prelims. The service is available in 45 countries overall at the moment.
UFC Chief Operating Officer Ike Lawrence Epstein said in today’s press release that “we’ve always felt that the potential of combining UFC events with virtual reality would give our fans the ultimate enhanced experience.”
UFC 212 takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this Saturday, June 3. In the main event, featherweight champ Jose Aldo meets interim featherweight champ Max Holloway in a title unification bout. It marks Aldo’s first bout in Brazil since 2014. The co-main event features strawweights Cláudia Gadelha vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz, while Vitor Belfort is expected to make what will likely be his last UFC appearance, taking on Nate Marquardt.
A previously announced bout featuring UFC middleweight legend Anderson Silva has been removed from the event.
Future UFC events streaming on Samsung’s VR Live Pass service are expected to be announced at a later time.
