GLORY Kickboxing is here to stay. (REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw)
(REUTERS / Reuters)
GLORY Kickboxing is moving to a new broadcasting home.
The company’s CEO Marshall Zelaznik revealed Wednesday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show” that GLORY Kickboxing has agreed to a new multi-territory broadcast deal with DAZN. The platform has become a hub for various combat sports over the years, including boxing, MMA with the now-defunct Bellator promotion, and bare-knuckle boxing with BKFC. GLORY Kickboxing currently airs pay-per-view events on Triller TV and free shows on its YouTube channel.
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“We’ve now partnered with DAZN in many regions around the world, including the U.S.,” Zelaznik said. “For us, our ambition is to become more relevant worldwide. DAZN, being the leader, frankly, of marquee combat sports events, it was a natural fit for us. We had done a smaller deal with them in France and Belgium, which was very successful. So we ended up doing a multi-territory deal around our ‘Last Heavyweight Standing,’ which is our multi-event tournament, which kicks off in April.
“For us, there’s this notion of the company you keep, so we’re excited to announce that we’re going to with DAZN and that it will be available to many people around the world.”
Along with the broadcast news, GLORY Kickboxing announced it will return to the U.S. for a show in Miami on May 1 as part of a new deal with Jake Paul’s betting service, Betr. The event will be held in the Betr headquarters, featuring a welterweight title rematch between champions Chico Kwasi and Tyjani Beztati headlining the event. Kwasi vs. Beztati 1 ended via a split draw when they first met at GLORY 96 in October.
“GLORY is redefining fight sports by delivering what fans want,” Zelaznik stated in a press release. “By partnering with Betr and their family of creators, we will bring the most compelling and exciting bouts directly to the fans. Fans today are engaging and discovering content through outlets other than traditional networks. These social, interactive, and influencer communities reach at the core of the combat sports fanbase. We’re proud to be the first globally recognized sports brand to deliver our core product through this model — we will meet our fans where they live and engage through the voices they trust. This is the first time a brand as big as GLORY will work in this way with this new form of media, and we are proud to kick this strategy off with an innovative and forward-thinking group like Betr.”
