Eleven Sports signs broadcasting deal with Cage Warriors Fighting Championship

According to an article in Inside The Games, Broadcaster Eleven Sports has announced an exclusive multi-year agreement to show leading Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events under the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship banner.

The new three-year deal will see every one of Cage Warriors’ events between 2017 and 2019 broadcast live and exclusive across Eleven Sports' channels in all of the network’s territories in Europe and Asia.

This will start with Cage Warriors 80 at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday (February 18).

“We are delighted to add such a prestigious MMA property as the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship to our growing portfolio of rights, bringing top-class fight sports to fans across all of Eleven’s territories,” said Danny Menken, group managing director at Eleven Sports.

“Eleven Sports strongly believes in the value of MMA, especially Cage Warriors, and we are very pleased to have the opportunity to grow this property together with them.

“We are committed to bringing Warriors action and excitement to MMA fans across the world.

"We’ve struck a number of key partnership deals in the past 12 months to help achieve that aim, and our deal with ELEVEN SPORTS is a clear sign that we’re continuing to expand and break new ground in 2017.

"We are particularly excited by ELEVEN’s dynamic approach to the sport,” said Casimir Knight, CEO of Warrior Development Agency, parent company of Cage Warriors."

Following the opening Cage Warriors event of 2017 in London, the promotion then moves to Dublin on March 4 and Liverpool on April 1.

The agreement will also see Eleven Sports taking on an important role in the commercial organisation of key events, with the two parties looking to work together to bring new events to the markets served by the broadcaster.

"We’ve struck a number of key partnership deals in the past 12 months to help achieve that aim, and our deal with Eleven Sports is a clear sign that we’re continuing to expand and break new ground in 2017," added Casimir Knight, the chief executive of Warrior Development Agency, the parent company of Cage Warriors.

"We are particularly excited by Eleven’s dynamic approach to the sport.

“Our fighters represent some of the best fighting talent in the world and, thanks to the deals we’ve struck, they now have the opportunity to showcase their skills on a truly global stage.”

Read the full article here.