Former WWE star and pop culture icon Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Project Rock performance brand via Under Armour is now the official footwear partner of the UFC.
Johnson announced the news on Twitter Friday along with a hype video, saying the deal begins with Saturday’s UFC 270.
Financial terms for the multi-year deal were not disclosed. It’s unknown if UFC fighters will get any financial cut of the contract.
The partnership will see Project Rock training shoes and slides worn by UFC fighters and teams leading up to shows. It replaces Reebok’s agreement for the footwear which was a separate deal from the fight wear and apparel deal they had that expired last year.
Co-branded shoes will be released later in 2022 and will be made available for retail purchase.
Johnson has been a UFC fan for years and has been involved promotionally with the company in the past, most notably in the buildup and execution of the “BMF title” that was up for grabs when Jorge Masvidal defeated Nate Diaz at UFC 244 in November 2019.
Johnson has been a client of Endeavor, the owners of UFC, since 2011.
Nearly six years after going outside the MMA world and signing a deal with Reebok to become their first official in-cage apparel provider, UFC is returning to its roots in a sense, announcing Friday that Venum will be their new exclusive global outfitting and apparel partner starting in April 2021.
Founded in the summer of 2005, the company has an expansive line of customizable combat sports gear and “athleisure” wear ranging from MMA to Brazilian jiujitsu to boxing to karate and more. They also have lines exclusive to fighters like boxer Vasyl Lomachenko and ONE MMA women’s star Angela Lee. Similar to the Reebok deal, they will supply both fight kits and apparel.
The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but in the release, UFC did acknowledge changes in payouts to fighters, saying, “UFC’s outfitting policy is administered through its Promotional Guidelines Compliance program. UFC will adjust the pay scale tied to its Promotional Guidelines Compliance program, which will result in across the board increases for all athletes effective April 2021.”
Reebok did not determine how fighters got paid under their deal with the UFC. Rather, the UFC did.
The UFC and Reebok deal was marked by frustrations with fighters not making as much as they had prior to the uniform deal when they were able to get their own sponsorships and gear in addition to a lack of unique designs and looks.
While the Reebok deal runs out this March, they will remain as the official footwear provider through the end of 2021. It’s unknown whether they were interested in continuing the apparel partnership, but it doesn’t appear they were.
Over the past few weeks, Venum, Nike, and Under Armour were all rumored to be in the running with Under Armour seen as a longshot due to recent financial troubles.
Variety reported Tuesday that ESPN and Fox have proposed a multi-network approach to televise the UFC once the organization’s existing deal with Fox runs out.
According to the report, ESPN’s contribution would be between $120-$180 million a year while Fox would increase its yearly commit to just over $200 million, coming somewhat closer to the reported $400 million a year owners Endeavor were looking for when they purchased the organization for more than $4 billion.
What’s in it for ESPN?
While much maligned in the media due to the rise in cord cutting over the past few years, the Disney-owned sports entity is betting big on the future of their OTT service, ESPN+. The service launched last week for $4.99 a month and the deal would bring up to 15 live events to the platform, according to the report.
What’s in it for Fox?
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of UFC on both Fox Sports One and Fox Sports Two, both in live event programming, replays, and hours upon hours of “shoulder” programming. While the report says their overall amount of shows would decline, they certainly wouldn’t be paying $200 million a year to have the amount of shows decline by that much.
All of this comes at an interesting time for both companies considering their recent deal in which many Fox-owned properties were sold to Disney. The two share co-ownership rights on several college football properties int addition to Major League Soccer.
So, what about PPV?
The piece didn’t mention how any of this would affect the company’s PPV future. Fans know that the company’s offerings last year and this year have waned in value, outside a few big exceptions, due to injuries, missed weight cuts, and light card depth. If two companies were involved in the rights, one would have to think some of those borderline PPVs would change to live events instead with an emphasis on bigger PPVs with the company’s bigger draws.
So, what about Fight Pass?
The company has taken a much different attitude toward Fight Pass than when they hired former Rivals.com head Eric Winter several years ago. (He left shortly after the Endeavor purchase.) While they still air a few exclusive shows and a few fights on fight nights, it’s essentially just access to a tape library and live events from regional promotions. Endeavor recently purchased streaming provider Neulion for $250 million, leading to speculation the company might just move everything onto their own OTT platform. If the ESPN/Fox alliance comes through, fans can at least hope for better quality streaming than they are accustomed to now, especially with the archived footage.
So, what about WWE?
The other factor is all of this is WWE who has reportedly been courted by Fox. This potential move doesn’t necessarily kill that as the “new” Fox is moving quickly toward more live event/sports programming on their remaining properties. It might affect the money offered in a deal, but with new Disney cash, that still might be another big splash they want to make.
