ESPN STAR Sports Secures Super Fight League Rights

ESPN STAR Sports have announced a five-year broadcast deal with Super Fight League (SFL), the leading Mixed Martial Arts property in Asia. 

The network will televise 23 SFL Fight Nights live on a fortnightly basis from the 2013-14 season, which begins on 29 March.

Vijay Rajput, Chief Operating Officer, ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd, said: “We believe in offering the best of sporting content to the Indian sports fans across genres and this acquisition firmly reiterates our constant endeavour in this direction.

“This acquisition enables us to expand our content in MMA fighting and we think this property will get a lot of traction with fight fans across the country. We will soon start a high decibel marketing campaign across our entire network leveraging top fighters of the league and Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt to build up to the season launch.”

Raj Kundra, Founder Chairman, Super Fight League, added: “The broadcast tie-up with ESPN STAR Sports will provide a major boost to our efforts to promote this property across South Asia. We’re very enthused with the response that SFL has been able to generate in its very first year of operation. The league is today ranked amongst top 5 MMA leagues in the world.

“As a result, we have seen a lot of interest from leading MMA fighters to compete in SFL season 2. Good quality fighters from India and abroad will help the league reach new highs. We are also expanding in a big way. The new season will see 11 title belts on offer, up from 5 title belts in the first edition.”