After a four year break, Ultimate Fighting Championship will be returning to Setanta Sports with all facets of UFC programming in Ireland.
This isn't the first big deal to hit up the islands off of continental Europe, just last month UFC brokered a three year deal with BT Sport in the UK. The current deal is expected to start on August 1 when the current ESPN UK deal runs out, just in time for fans to witness Conor McGregor's stateside debut.
Monday's announcement includes two new BT Sport channels and ESPN added to the Setanta Sports package in Ireland, which means satellite subscribers to the pack will have access to 30 live UFC events. The first airing is slated to be UFC 163, which takes place Aug. 3 in Rio de Janeiro.
Brian Quinn, the marketing director of Setanta Sports, was obviously excited about the deal, and had as much to say in the press release:
"This content is a real game changer for Setanta. It's not Just 30 live UFC events but it will also include all associated UFC shows such as the Ultimate fighter, weigh-ins and the Road to the Octagon. The Setanta pack will be the only place to see the likes of Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and Jose Aldo and we especially look forward to Conor McGregor's upcoming appearance in Boston on August 18th."
It's definitely good to hear UFC and Setanta have patched things up. It didn't look good for any reconciliation after the world's top MMA promotion dumped them back in 2009, just in time for the biggest event in MMA history.
Hopefully everything turns out better with this second chance.
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