The UFC will debut on the Peacock Network for the first event of its 2021 schedule.
The promotion’s official broadcast partner ESPN announced UFC Fight Island 7, which takes place Jan. 16 in Abu Dhabi, will air live on ABC, confirming an earlier report from MMA Fighting of the UFC’s return to network TV for the first time since December 2018, when its previous broadcast deal with FOX ran its course.
The UFC’s new deal with ESPN, inked prior to its departure from FOX, gave the promotion access to the media empire owned by Disney, which first purchased a stake in the sports network in 1995 in one of the biggest media deals of the time.