The following is a press release:
Las Vegas – In another great addition to the UFC FIGHT PASS offering, the UFC’s digital streaming service is proud to announce it has reached an agreement with the Shooto Brazil organization, beginning with the exclusively live stream of this Sunday’s Shooto Brazil 54 MMA event.
The entire 12-fight card – headlined by the vacant Shooto featherweight title fight between Felipe Froes and Paulo Guerreiro – will stream live from Rio, Brazil, on Sunday, May 17 at 3pmPT/ 6pmET on UFCFIGHTPASS.com.
MMA pioneer and broadcaster Jason Chambers will handle the English language play-by-play with former WEC® and UFC® bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz serving as color commentator.
UFC’s Chief Content Officer Marshall Zelaznik said: “We’ve very excited to confirm that UFC FIGHT PASS will stream Sunday’s Shooto Brazil 54 event. Shooto Brazil is an organization which is renowned in Brazil and in hardcore MMA circles for putting on great fights and finding great talent. Our deal with Shooto covers live events and also the rights to the previous 53 shows, dating back to 2002 and featuring some great fights including early career performances by UFC stars like Jose Aldo, Renan Barao and Glover Teixeira.”
The full Shoot Brazil 54 card is as follows:
Shooto Featherweight Title Felipe Froes v Paulo Guerreiro
Catchweight: Ronys Torres v Benito Tavares
Light heavyweight: Luiz Banha Cane v Ricardo Silva
Featherweight: Pedrinho Falcão v Thiago Manchinha
Flyweight: Guilherme Jacaré v Edson de Souza
Featherweight: Felipe Colen v Alex Trem Bala
Lightweight: Oton Jasse v Marcio Breno
Lightweight: Ivan Paiva v Antonio Pedreira
Flyweight: Yago Bryan v Carlos Eduardo
Lightweight: Guilherme Doin v Denilson Oliveira
Bantamweight: Matheus Nacacche v Almir de Oliveira
Bantamweight: Elves Oliveira x Lucas Bigous
Shooto Brazil is the latest promotion to be added to the ever-expanding UFC FIGHT PASS fight library. Last week, the library of the legendary International Vale Tudo promotion – which ran 13 events Brazil in the late 1990s – was uploaded to UFC FIGHT PASS. And, in the coming weeks and months, FIGHT PASS members will see the first bouts and events uploaded from eight other major MMA organizations, as previously announced.
Zelaznik said: “The addition of the Shooto Brazil library means our members will soon have access to the libraries of 18 of the most important promotions from around the world and up and down the history of MMA. FIGHT PASS continues to develop into more than a “must-have” for fight fans, but an expansive archive of the entire sport, from the greatest modern UFC fights to the wars in PRIDE in Japan years ago, to the emergence of the lighter-weight fighters in the WEC to Vale Tudo fights in 1990s Brazil.
“When we are finally done ingesting all these new libraries, we expect to be offering our members access to over 20,000 fights from all over the world and across and the entire history of our sport.”
FIGHT PASS members can expect the Shooto Brazil back library to be uploaded to the service this summer.