Live Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view events are coming online to China.
Company officials on Tuesday announced that live PPV events, beginning with next month's "UFC 109: Relentless" event (headlined by Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman in Las Vegas), will air online at Sohu.com.
Sohu.com is one of the country's largest Web portals.
"China is one of the gateways to building UFC into the biggest sport in the world," UFC president Dana White stated. "China is the cradle of martial arts; many of the styles that you see in the UFC were born in this country.
"With Sohu.com as our web partner, we look forward to presenting world-class fights and to bringing the great tradition of martial arts back to its homeland in China.
China boasts a population of 1.34 billion, which gives the UFC a potentially massive target audience.
UFC events will air on the SOHU Kungfu channel, though today's announcement did not mention any costs associated with the broadcasts.
As MMAjunkie.com reported this past July, the UFC also has a television deal in China with Inner Mongolia Television, known as NMTV, which is in 80 million households and available to 240 million total viewers.
NMTV airs up to 16 monthly hours of UFC-related programming, including "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series, "UFC Unleashed" highlights shows and "UFC All Access" fighter-profile programs. NMTV also has the option to air recent UFC pay-per-view telecasts.
Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/17699/live-uf ... -china.mma