A partnership with Crypto.com will allow the Ultimate Fighting Championship to pay bonuses in Bitcoin for fighters.
Through a partnership with Crypto.com, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the world’s most prestigious professional mixed martial art competition, will pay fighter bonuses in Bitcoin.
UFC will pay Bitcoin to the top three UFC fighters at every pay-per-view event. The three top fighters will be determined by fan votes. Each fighter will receive $60,000 worth of the flagship cryptocurrency.
A statement by Crypto.com states that $30,000 worth Bitcoin will be awarded to the first place winner, $20,000 to the second place winner, and $10,000 to the third place finisher.
“Crypto.com is an official UFC partner since less than one year. I can tell you that they are already one the most valuable partners we have had.” In a prepared statement, Dana White, UFC president, stated that they are constantly coming up with innovative ideas on how we can connect with the fans.
This isn’t the first time Crypto.com has entered sports marketing. After paying $700 million to name the LA Lakers’ arena, the exchange became the headline in November 2021.
This isn’t the first time that the UFC has tried crypto.
The organization filed two patent requests in April of last year to indicate its intention to become involved with NFTs.
The first trademark was used to launch a UFC-branded cryptocurrency. The second was intended to create an app that would allow the UFC to use its native cryptocurrency.
The application stated that it was available as a downloadable program which allows members to access, spend, trade, and manage digital currency, tokens, non-fungible tokens and digital assets.
A month prior, Francis Ngannou was the UFC heavyweight champion. He had just made $580,000 through an NFT collaboration. This figure is more than his guaranteed fight pay for his bout against Stipe Miocic at UFC 260.
