The face of UFC in the UK could be set to change, with Sky Sports ready to nab TV rights from BT Sport, the curent exclusive rights holders.
BT Sport have a contract with UFC until December 3, and will show Conor McGregor's return to the Octagon against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 on October 6.
However, it is expected that BT Sport will drop their coverage when their deal expires, reports the Express.
Sky Sports and Eleven Sports are both understood to be eyeing the rights after BT refused to match the price UFC named, despite an annual TV rights budget of around £1billion.
"It's like a big football club in the transfer window. If a striker is worth £50m I won't pay £70m for him. At the wrong price, everything is expendable," Marc Allera, head of BT Consumer, told the Financial Times.
But it's understood that the new packages could see UFC’s numbered events, of which there are roughly 12 a year, go to Sky Sports Box Office, forcing UK fans to pay for each card they want to watch.
The smaller “Fight Night” events appear likely to go to Eleven Sports, who are currently an online-only broadcaster but have plans for a TV channel in the near future.
However, that too will concern UFC fans who might have caught some of the PGA Championship golf coverage.
The production, which featured the US feed dressed with some exclusive presenting, was widely panned over technical and aesthetic problems.
The company, which is run by Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani, was forced to issue an apology at one point after an outage and viewers even missed the winning putt.
Conor McGregor
But the UK arm of the Eleven Sports do at least have more experience with UFC, having recently hired one of the company’s former marketing directors Scott Fenton.
However, the deal for UFC TV rights remains up in the air, with BT understood to be happy to reconsider if the sport’s authorities will tolerate a lower price for the package.
BT are also set to launch their own pay-per-view service later this year, although details remain sketchy about its exact nature.
But Express Sport understands that the mooted WBC heavyweight world title fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury in December could be the landmark launch event of the channel.