Dana White’s UFC and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta joining forces in partnership

Advertisement

Advertise with us

NEW YORK (AP) — UFC is joining up with Facebook's parent company Meta in a deal that will bring mixed martial arts to more fans around the world.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/04/2025 (520 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK (AP) — UFC is joining up with Facebook’s parent company Meta in a deal that will bring mixed martial arts to more fans around the world.

The companies said Wednesday that their multiyear partnership will give UFC the ability to use Meta’s technology platforms, services, and products, including Meta AI, Meta Glasses, Meta Quest, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, so that UFC fans have more ways to view its content.

Meta and UFC, whose parent company is TKO Group, said they will work together to incorporate Meta’s AI glasses into UFC events.

FILE - A UFC logo stands outside the arena, April 24, 2021, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough, file)
FILE - A UFC logo stands outside the arena, April 24, 2021, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough, file)

“Meta has the greatest minds in tech and they are going to take fan engagement to the next level,” UFC President and CEO Dana White said in a statement.

White mentioned that Meta is already working on some innovations for a new fighter rankings system.

The deal, whose financial terms were not disclosed, will also see the Meta brand appear in UFC’s Octagon, as well as across numerous broadcasts. Meta’s social media platform Threads will feature exclusive original UFC content.

“I love this sport and I’m looking forward to working with the UFC to let fans experience it in new ways,” Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg is trained in mixed martial arts and posted about completing his first jiu jitsu tournament in 2023. That same year, there were talks of him and Tesla CEO Elon Musk squaring off in a “cage match,” but the event never happened.

Zuckerberg and White are no strangers to each other, with White joining Meta’s board of directors in January.

Both Zuckerberg and White are among the many high profile business figures within the orbit of President Donald Trump. After Trump won reelection in November, Zuckerberg dined at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Other Big Tech companies such as Amazon have donated similar amounts.

Trump is a longtime UFC fan and frequent attendee of major fights. His ties with White date back to 2001, when White hosted a UFC at the Republican’s former casino-hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the Trump Taj Mahal. Trump has also appeared with White at UFC matches over the years, especially in his 2024 campaign as part of efforts to appeal to younger male voters.

White has had speaking roles at the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Republican conventions and appeared on stage at Trump’s election victory party in November.

Shares of Meta Platforms Inc. rose slightly in midday trading, while shares of TKO Group Holdings Inc. climbed more than 2%.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Canada’s first drive-thru-only McDonald’s opens in Winnipeg

Aaron Epp 4 minute read Preview

Canada’s first drive-thru-only McDonald’s opens in Winnipeg

Aaron Epp 4 minute read Yesterday at 5:29 PM CDT

One Grimace and dozens of smiles were on display Wednesday as McDonald’s staff and supporters celebrated the grand opening of the fast-food chain’s first drive-thru-only restaurant in Canada.

Read
Yesterday at 5:29 PM CDT

Class delayed a day after mould found in Tyndall Park school

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read Preview

Class delayed a day after mould found in Tyndall Park school

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read 7:31 PM CDT

The first day of school has been postponed at École Stanley Knowles School after teachers discovered mould on chairs, rugs and other items when they were setting up their classrooms.

Families were alerted Thursday afternoon that an “HVAC malfunction” required extensive cleanup and, as a result, a one-day delay to the new year.

“I called it a couple weeks ago — it smelled really strong of mould,” said Amanda Bell, a mother who’s gone to the building regularly all summer to drop off and pick up her children from the on-site daycare.

Bell recalled she and her partner got a whiff of “wet mould” in a first-floor hallway near the library in mid-August and flagged it to an employee who told them they’d contact a custodian.

Read
7:31 PM CDT

Foreign workers at Manitoba hotel are owed $138K in unpaid wages and fees, labour board rules

Abiola Odutola 4 minute read Preview

Foreign workers at Manitoba hotel are owed $138K in unpaid wages and fees, labour board rules

Abiola Odutola 4 minute read Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026

BRANDON — The Manitoba Labour Board has ordered the Western Star All Suites Hotel to pay nearly $138,000 in unpaid wages and administrative fees after it dismissed the appeals involving three foreign workers employed by the company.

In a decision dated Aug. 25, the board ordered 6692452 Manitoba Ltd. (doing business as Western Star All Suites Hotel), 1638185 Alberta Ltd. and company director P.X. to pay a total of $137,915.79 to the Employment Standards Branch for wages owed to foreign workers S.J., J.B. and G.R.

The decision was edited to protect the personal information of the employees, who worked at a hotel, reportedly in Melita, at different times and also lived there during their employment.

The board stated the employees were owed wages after hearing evidence about long working hours, irregular payments, inadequate employment records and working conditions.

Read
Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026

Puzzles Palace

1 minute read Monday, Jul. 27, 2026

To solve our puzzles, please subscribe with this special offer: |

‘Where are they going to go?’: encampment policy blamed for homeless people sleeping outside thrift store

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Preview

‘Where are they going to go?’: encampment policy blamed for homeless people sleeping outside thrift store

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Yesterday at 4:55 PM CDT

The owner of a Portage Avenue thrift shop says the city’s encampment ban has pushed dozens of homeless people from tent communities to spaces near her store.

Susan Lockhart, who runs Just Like New to You at 635 Portage Ave., says anywhere from 25 to 50 people can be found at any given time behind the store and along the back lane stretching between Sherbrook and Furby streets.

“Where are they going to go?” she said Wednesday from her shop. “I was just here on the weekend and I couldn’t get to our back door. There were people everywhere. Mattresses.”

Earlier this week, the city reported 275 people were known to be living in 72 encampments across Winnipeg — down from 100 encampments housing about 700 people last September. The report also noted that 141 sites have been remediated since the city’s encampment policy came into effect in November.

Read
Yesterday at 4:55 PM CDT

Man who killed truck passenger handed new 12-year sentence

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Preview

Man who killed truck passenger handed new 12-year sentence

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Manitoba’s highest court has given a man who shot at a passing truck and killed a 20-year-old woman a 12-year prison sentence for manslaughter.

William Ryerson Thomas Comber, now in his mid 20s, was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in December 2022 for the killing of Hailey Dugay on Nov. 17, 2018. Comber was later sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.

Dugay died after the truck she was travelling in was struck by gunfire late at night on a gravel road near Fraserwood, 90 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

The Court of Appeal struck down Comber’s murder conviction earlier this year and ruled he was instead guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Read
Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT