Sources: UFC Looking To Increase Media Rights In China

The UFC is "negotiating a new media rights deal in China, years before its current one expires, in hopes that now's the time to extract more money," according to sources cited by Josh Kosman of N.Y. POST. The negotiations come as Zhang "Magnum" Weili, born in China's Hebei province, was crowned the UFC women's strawweight champion last month -- giving her "star status in China." Sources said that the current media-rights deal, struck in '16, gave China the "right to broadcast UFC fights for five years" for roughly $50M. Now, the UFC is "seeking to double those fees" to $100M -- or $20M a year. Sources said that in an effort to get the deal done, the UFC is "holding talks with the current owner of China's UFC streaming rights, PPTV Sports, as well as tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent, which also offer streaming services" (N.Y. POST, 9/11).