US Spanish-language media and content company Univision Communications Inc has officially announced this last Wednesday, July 28th an agreement with Combate Global, LLC, through which Univision has acquired ‘a significant equity stake’ -which was not reported-  in the Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports franchise.

Combate Global is the leading Hispanic MMA sports franchise, aimed at developing the best, new MMA athletes from different countries. In addition, Combate Global also features live events and original programming, and is the only MMA property airing on TV in both the US and Mexico, through Univision and Televisa, respectively. The announcement takes place after the company’s recent five-year media rights deal, that features 30 live TV events airing annually (a total of 150 events), many of which will take place live, from Univision’s studios in Miami. 

‘Since teaming up in 2018, Univision and Combate Global have created an entirely new audience for MMA. Today, those content fans, combined with our dynamic athletes, represent the future of the sport. This announcement strengthens Univision’s commitment to Hispanic MMA and we could not be more excited to further strengthen our successful partnership with them’, reported Combate Global’s CEO, Campbell McLaren.

According to Juan Carlos Rodriguez, President of Sports Enterprises at Univision, this investment ‘means the first step in Univision’s strategy to deliver more live combat sports to our audience’. The executive has also reported that combat sports ‘rank as the second most popular sport among Hispanics, and we are excited to take our successful partnership to the next level as we collaborate with the Combate team to elevate the brand and bring compelling mixed martial arts across Univision’s platforms in the coming years’.  

Another of the projects in which Univision is working on is the launch of a new streaming platform for the US and Latin America, for 2022. Although its name has not been confirmed yet, the OTT will include  both free ad-supported (AVOD) and premium subscription (SVOD) based options The news took place at the end of June, after Univision and Televisa confirmed the merger of their assets and the launch of a new OTT platform in Spanish.