UFC returns to country next year via Cignal TV

(L-R) Frankie Edgar, UFC Asia Executive Vice President Ken Berger and Urijah Faber during a presser for the UFC Fight Night in Manila.

THE SMASHING success of its inaugural serving has prompted the Ultimate Fighting Championship to mount a repeat act here in Manila next year.

Kenneth Berger, UFC executive vice president and general manager, announced on Tuesday that the Philippines would be on their radar as the biggest mixed martial arts show in the planet maps out its global calendar for 2016.

“We’re looking to go back here,” said Berger during the contract-signing among top officials of Cignal TV and the UFC at Seda Hotel in Taguig.

Beginning Friday, Cignal will bring UFC programming starting with UFC 195, the first live event of 2016 to Filipino households through Hyper Channel 53.

UFC and Cignal will provide viewers with wall-to-wall coverage of MMA’s elite.

“We know for a fact that this will become a major pillar when it comes to content,” said Cignal VP for marketing Guido Zaballero.

“We’re very excited to carry it now. In fact, when we announced it, we experienced a big increase in the number of Cignal subscribers.”

Manila hosted the UFC Fight Night early this year before anoverflowing crowd at the 20,000-fullhouse capacity Mall of Asia Arena.

“We’re still looking for dates, lot of logistic issues both related to our global calendar as we’ll as the availability of venues,’’ said Berger. “But we look forward to announce something in the first quarter of this year.’’