European MMA ‘giant’ announces major UK broadcast partnership with Channel 4

European MMA outfit, OKTAGON MMA, has announced its broadcast partnership with Channel 4 in the UK.

Channel 4 is freely accessible to all of the UK and also owns the territory’s biggest free streaming service. As part of the landmark deal, all OKTAGON MMA live events and shoulder programming will be available to stream on Channel 4 and on the Channel 4 Sports YouTube channel.

The deal will see Channel 4 become the home of OKTAGON MMA as it begins its UK venture. November 4 marks OKTAGON MMA’s first UK event, as it heads to Manchester’s AO Arena for OKTAGON 48.

The partnership will start with a new reality TV series, ‘Stage to the Cage’, featuring reality TV superstar, Jake Quickenden, and top comedian, Paul Smith, which launches with the first three episodes on Tuesday, September 5, as well as ‘OKTAGON Challenge: England vs. Ireland’ later in the month.

The first OKTAGON MMA live event to stream on Channel 4 will be OKTAGON 46 on September 16 which features the semi-finals of the €1 million Tipsport Gamechanger welterweight tournament inside the iconic Festhalle Frankfurt in Germany.

Pavol Neruda, co-founder of OKTAGON MMA, commented: “We are very proud to sign a deal with Channel 4 and we’re very happy to close a deal with such a big broadcaster. They believe in us, they want to do this with us, and they like the OKTAGON MMA product.

“The game changer in this deal was Stage to the Cage, a reality show starring Jake Quickenden and comedian Paul Smith. Channel 4 thought it was a clever idea to put these two guys together in the cage. We’ve seen celebrity boxing fights, but this is something different. They are training for one year and having to completely change their lives.

“MMA fans can expect to see the first episode of Stage to the Cage in August. Then after that OKTAGON Challenge - a reality show that will see England and Irish talent battle it out in and outside the cage - followed by our first tournament live from Frankfurt in September. This will be a first for Channel 4 and we’ll be expecting big numbers.

“This is the first schedule but with more content to follow. Next year we are planning four more fight nights in the UK and also in Ireland. We are looking for the right arena in Ireland because Irish fans are amazing.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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