UFC Sponsors That Are Most Recognizable
It’s become a weekly happening throughout the world. Every Saturday night (or sometimes on other nights), fans will either sit on the couch at home or go to their bar or restaurant of choice and turn on some UFC action.
Around all the fights and knockouts, there are various brand names that have become known for their involvement with MMA’s No.1 brand, much like the fighters who touch down in a UFC host city to weigh-in and make the walk on fight night. For fans who look to Bitcoin casinos USA and around the world, the relationship with Crypto.com has caught the attention of many fight fans.
Today, we take a look at some of those notable brands that you often see during UFC shows. There’s no time to waste, so let’s get going right away.
Brand Names Synonymous With UFC: Reebok
In the world of sneakers, wearing the best shoe is everything if you’re either on the track, running on the treadmill, or on the basketball court going up for a rebound in a pick-up game with some of your buddies. While UFC fighters, such as Alexander Volkanovski (27-4 MMA, 14-3 UFC) and Kayla Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) are forbidden from wearing sneakers in fights, it didn’t stop the promotion from forging a working relationship with one of the most-recognizable shoe brands in the country.
Between 2015 and 2021, Reebok had a sponsorship with the promotion, with its official emblem featured prominently on items like ballcaps, shoes, and clothing. In the spring of 2021, however, everything changed.
Effective April 1, 2021, the UFC would team up with a new apparel partner. Much like Reebok, this is also synonymous with the brand.
Brand Names Synonymous With UFC: Venum
In the aftermath of UFC 260 on March 27, 2021 at the UFC Apex facility in Enterprise, NV, the former apparel pact between Dana White’s promotion and Reebok expired after a six-year run. Days later, its current apparel partnership with Paris-based Venum kicked in. This ongoing deal resulted in increased wages for the fighters.
UFC competitors with at least 21 fights on their resume would receive $21,000 per contest at the launch of the deal, while fighters challenging for a weight division’s championship were paid $32,000. Champions were paid $42,000 per defense of the title.
When the deal launched in 2021, rookie fighters with a maximum of three contests under the promotional banner were paid $4,000 a fight, while contestants who had a maximum of five bouts complete with the UFC got paid $4,500 a fight. In March of 2024, the UFC and Venum came to terms on an extension of their pact, which now lapses in 2029.
Brand Names Synonymous With UFC: EA Sports
For more than a decade, the UFC has had an exclusive video game deal with one of the premiere publishers in the genre: Electronic Arts through its EA Sports brand.This business relationship wasn’t always smiles and sunshine, however.
After EA announced its MMA video game without a UFC license for PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360, UFC CEO Dana White threatened to cut ties with any and all fighters that had their names, images, and likenesses featured in EA Sports MMA. In 2014, the initial EA Sports UFC video game was released for XBOX One and PlayStation 4.
A mobile version of the title was released the following year. Since then, EA Sports has released a new installment every few years. EA Sports UFC 5, the most recent entry into the series, dropped in October of 2023.
Brand Names Synonymous With UFC: Bud Light
For those who choose to drink it, a cold beer and fight night go hand-in-hand. Between 2008 and 2017 and again from 2024 until the present day, the UFC has been partnered with Anheuser-Busch and its Bud Light brand. The relationship between the promotion and Bud Light was initially halted in 2017 after the UFC came to terms with Modelo.
The second relationship with Bud Light was embroiled with controversy, however. In October of 2023, the deal with Anheuser-Busch was announced just several months after consumers led a boycott of the brand due to Bud Light partnering with transgender actress Dylan Mulvaney on social media.
Controversies aside, the relationship with Bud Light will continue for the foreseeable future.
Brand Names Synonymous With UFC: Buffalo Wild Wings
What goes better with a cold beer on a fight night than wings? Aside from other food options, not much. When you think of wings and of the UFC, one need look no further than the final brand mentioned here today.
Buffalo Wild Wings has been a major backer of the sport’s top promotion. Many Buffalo Wild Wings bars make the organization’s premium live events available to customers on fight nights,
Even better, pay-per-views have no cover charge added on to a patron’s bill. It’s impossible to miss a second of the action at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Every participating location has TV monitors tuned to the show on the night of a PPV and the food and drink will be circulating all night long. All you have to do to find a participating bar carrying the show is enter your ZIP code and call ahead if the location is carrying the event.