UFC Partners With Meta For VR MMA

Jobe Smith is not impressed.

Meta head cheese Mark Zuckerberg, who is probably best known for the creation of Facebook, had the entire APEX facility to himself when Dana White recently shut the place down for Zuck and his suit squad, much to the chagrin of fight fans (and other fighters).

Now we know why.

Meta will be partnering with UFC to bring live MMA to the world of virtual reality (VR), starting with the LFA 144 event this Friday night (Oct. 14, 2022) at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., a 16-fight card that also streams on the UFC Fight Pass digital network.

“We are excited to offer an unprecedented level of engagement for Fight Pass subscribers and MMA fans around the world by producing a live MMA event in virtual reality,” Crowley Sullivan, Fight Pass vice president and general manager said in today’s release (via MMA Junkie). “With Meta providing the VR platform and YBVR lending their production expertise, we’re confident this will be a great experience for fight fans.”

In order to watch LFA 144 in VR180 you will first need a compatible Meta Quest headset along with Meta’s Horizon Worlds app. If you’re new to the Metaverse or VR in general, you can get more information on how to download and explore by clicking here.

LFA 144 will be headlined by the bantamweight title fight between Muin Gafurov and Diego Silva. Elsewhere on the card, heavyweight hurters Jordan Heiderman and Daiqwon Buckley collide in the co-main event, while Yuma Horiuchi and Juan Puerta face off at 125 pounds.