UFC pay-per-view comes to the Roku Player

The Roku Player's beefed-up Netflix channel was certainly a nice addition, but the company's latest partner is a little more fierce: pay-per-view UFC is coming to the little streaming media player, starting with Rampage vs. Evans on May 29th. Fight pricing hasn't been announced yet, but users will also have access to archived fights, as well as live access to pre-fight events and post-fight press conferences. Full PR after the break.

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UFC® FIGHTS LIVE ON ROKU STARTING WITH UFC 114: RAMPAGE vs EVANS

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – For the first time ever, just as UFC® light heavyweight rivals Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans enter the Octagon™ and touch gloves, Roku users all over the country will be able to see what happens next and who emerges the winner of this ultimate grudge-match live on TV via their Roku streaming video player.

The world's largest live Pay-Per-View event content provider, the Ultimate Fighting Championship®, and Roku, Inc. today announced a multi-year deal to feature all major UFC events on Roku, starting with UFC 114: Rampage vs. Evans taking place Saturday, May 29 live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
"We are always looking at the latest technology and the newest ways to bring the UFC experience to our fans," said Dana White, UFC President. "Roku is another way for fans to get more UFC and watch all of the UFC events live and in HD, starting with UFC 114 on Saturday, May 29th."
"The Roku player is capable of delivering amazing live events, in HD, on the TV. We are excited to be UFC's lead partner in bringing the total UFC experience – from live events and classic fights to insider previews, countdowns, and training coverage – to fans everywhere, whenever they want it," said Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku, Inc. "The new UFC channel joins a growing list of major streaming content services for the TV that started first on Roku, including Netflix, MLB.TV, and Amazon Video On Demand – further strengthening our position as the leader in delivery of premium streaming content."

In addition to UFC 114 and future live fights, Roku users will also have access to the UFC® Vault™, the world's largest collection of archived fights, as well as live access to UFC pre-fight events including the official weigh-ins, and pre-and-post fight press conferences, hosted by White.
First introduced in May 2008 as the original Netflix player, the affordable Roku streaming player is a little box that allows you to instantly stream tons of entertainment on your TV-without a PC. Roku's rapidly expanding library of instant entertainment includes over 50,000 movies and TV shows, live sporting events, music, and more. Roku players start at just $79.99 for the standard definition model and $99.99 for the HD model. For more information on Roku and the UFC channel, visit http://www.roku.com/ufc.

About UFC 114: RAMPAGE vs EVANS

At UFC 114, two former Ultimate Fighting Championship® light heavyweight champions get a chance to let their fists do the talking. After multiple back-and-forth verbal exchanges on the 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter®, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and "Suga" Rashad Evans are set to headline UFC 114, presented by THQ's "UFC Undisputed 2010" and live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 29.

Ultimate Fighting Championship® - www.ufc.com

Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., UFC® produces over twelve UFC live Pay-Per-View events annually and 30 live arena events around the world. UFC programming is distributed in the United States on Viacom, Inc.'s Spike TV and on Comcast, Inc.'s Versus network. UFC content is distributed commercially through Joe Hand Promotions in the U.S. and Canadastar in Canada. Globally, UFC programming is broadcast in over 130 countries, territories and jurisdictions, reaching 430 million homes worldwide, in 20 different languages. Ancillary businesses now include UFC.com with over 5 million unique visitors per month, the best-selling UFC "Undisputed" videogame franchise distributed by THQ, UFC Gym™, UFC Fight Club affinity program, UFC Fan Expo™ festivals, branded apparel, trading cards, articulated action figures and other media including best-selling DVDs and a U.S. bimonthly magazine.



Ultimate Fighting Championship®, Ultimate Fighting®, UFC®, The Ultimate Fighter®, Submission®, As Real As It Gets®, Zuffa®, The Octagon™ and the eight-sided competition mat and cage design are registered trademarks, registered service marks, trademarks, trade dress and/or service marks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC and licensed to its affiliated entities and other licensees in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks referenced herein may be the property of Zuffa, LLC, its affiliates or other respective owners.

Roku, Inc.

The market leader in streaming entertainment devices for the TV, Roku has always believed that anything you want to watch, listen to, and enjoy should simply be there on your TV, whenever you want it. Over half a million happy customers later, Roku streaming players are renowned for their simplicity, variety of entertainment choices, and exceptional value. Roku is privately held and based in Saratoga, Calif. For more information on the company and its products, visit: http://www.roku.com.

[JeremyBenthem Posted May 17th 2010 12:04AM]

I was one of the FIRST to get it and it's still the best $100 to be spend in a home theater

[keanu096 Posted May 17th 2010 12:08AM]

...still no

[SteveyAyo Posted May 17th 2010 12:09AM]

oh UFC thanks for the amazing birthday present that is Rampage vs Evans

[Sneakz Posted May 17th 2010 12:22AM]

Evans will win

[SteveyAyo Posted May 17th 2010 12:27AM]

@Sneakz if he doesnt back out again... of course then again they both did

[keanu096 Posted May 17th 2010 12:28AM]

Oh, you red-necks with your wrestling..

[kspraydad Posted May 17th 2010 12:34AM]

@keanu096 There isn't enough watercress for all of us you know.

[OC Technophile Posted May 17th 2010 12:51AM]

See it on ppv via directv or roku that streams? I'll take satellite especially on a $60 ppv. Good idea though

[misterhearn Posted May 17th 2010 1:07AM]

This is an option for people, I've always said the Xbox or PS3 should do something along the line of this just to give options to people. I plan on ordering via Directv myself though lol

[mukatuna Posted May 17th 2010 1:12AM]

UFC?

[walkietalkie Posted May 17th 2010 1:15AM]

Is it me or are people who like UFC the same kind of people who like WWF/WWE? In other words, the UFC crowd is not very bright. For evidence of this, visit any of the more popular UFC/MMA forums online and see for yourself.

[SteveyAyo Posted May 17th 2010 1:18AM]

@walkietalkie thats kind of a bold statement to make there guy... id like to point out that there are also a lot of people that dont watch UFC that are not very bright, in fact probably quite a bit more. Stereotyping doesnt really work well in any situation but its nice of you to try

[mrvco Posted May 17th 2010 1:19AM]

@walkietalkie Different people.

[Pavelz Posted May 17th 2010 1:44AM]

@walkietalkie There are also not very bright Engadget readers. Some of them are replying to this very blog entry

[everyone does Posted May 17th 2010 1:53AM]

@walkietalkie

I am a ridiculous MMA fan. I can run stats on fights from years ago, I stay up until the middle of the night to watch international fights live, etc.

I really can't stand a lot of teeny bopper MMA fans. But with that said, I also can't stand idiots like you either.


Maybe when you are done here you can talk about how football guys are all fat beer drinkers, soccer fans are all limp-wristed european guys, and that basketballs fans are all....well you get the point.

[Wesscoast Posted May 17th 2010 1:54AM]

@WT

Ah, in the words of Baby Stewie... "...hoisted by my own petard!"

[walkietalkie Posted May 17th 2010 2:02AM]

@everyone does

the problem with your analogy is those sports have existed for a long time.

UFC/MMA on the other hand is relatively young (14-15 years?) and mma fans are REALLY the same people who love WWE/WWF, the sport was and still is marketed toward that market and not legitimate sport fans. Why do you think the f*ckin thing takes place inside a steal fenced cage? Seriously, MMA/Fans are collectively some of the dumbest people youll ever meet. Im telling you, go to one of their online forums, or better yet go to a bar or an actual live event to see the extreme idiocy in person.

[kspraydad Posted May 17th 2010 2:16AM]

@walkietalkie

UFC fans does not necessarily equal MMA fans...why do you speak as if they are one in the same?

[everyone does Posted May 17th 2010 2:16AM]

@walkietalkie

" Why do you think the f*ckin thing takes place inside a steal fenced cage? "

Because when the Gracie family wanted an arena to prove their style of fighting could beat other styles, they created a new platform so that no one would have a sort of "home team advantage".

Of course, over the years, the cage and fence have become an apparatus to be used as much as anything, but its a give and take (ring vs cage)

FYI. MMA has largely existed in Japan in a ring since its inception, and all of the previous martial arts that eventually fed into MMA took palce in a cage not a " steal (sic) fenced cage? ". And while most won't admit it, MMA has an inextricable link to Pro wrestling thanks to the Japanese MMA culture. So yeah, pro wrestling leads to MMA in a ring. MMA in a cage is thanks to a bunch of brazillians with serious egos (and arguably the talent to back it up).


Also, I'm ignoring the rest of your post since your sample takes place at a bar. Surely you see the problem with going to a drunken sports to collect proof of your assertion that MMA fans are all idiots, right?

[SteveyAyo Posted May 17th 2010 2:27AM]

@walkietalkie well if we want to get technical, combat sports are the most time honored traditions of all major civilizations, from greek wrestling, to roman gladiators, to MMA fighters. Combat sports have been around WAY longer than football or soccer, but my problem here isnt that you dont like MMA. My problem is that youre being an ass. You come on here and insult other people grouping a vast majority of people in with a small cross section of MMA fans. i know a lot of MMA fans who are extremely intelligent and some who arent.

But since you like profiling im gonna go ahead and lump you together with the other trolls on engadget, you are now no better than account5 and Doctor Kwame Nkrumah who do nothing but spew ignorant hate all over these boards... cheers!

[walkietalkie Posted May 17th 2010 2:34AM]

@everyone does

Not true, theyve stated in many interviews they used the "fence" as a maketing tool that they adopted from "extreme cage matches".

That said, I'll repeat myself. MMA/UFC fans are some of the dumbest people youll ever have the misfortune of meeting.

[Steinman Posted May 17th 2010 2:45AM]

@walkietalkie
You're a moron...

[SteveyAyo Posted May 17th 2010 2:46AM]

@walkietalkie seems a lot like the pot calling the kettle black at this point... based on your posts you don't seem to be very intelligent yourself, or maybe I'm just perceiving you as a little ignorant troll who doesn't know when to stop talking

[slipdisc Posted May 17th 2010 3:18AM]

@SteveyAyo Exactly. Don't leave hated one out though.

[walkietalkie Posted May 17th 2010 4:45AM]

@SteveyAyo

So what exactly is "not intelligent" about my posts?
I think MMA fans are dopes, you disagree.
Have you actually attended an MMA event?
I have multiple times and the majority of UFC/MMA fans are complete idiots. The sport is mildly entertaining but the fans are effin morons.

[GetDange Posted May 17th 2010 9:25AM]

@walkietalkie Well here we go, turns out Walkie was basing his observations on himself. But seriously man (or woman), stop trolling please.

[SteveyAyo Posted May 17th 2010 12:25PM]

@slipdisc oh wow how could i forget that guy lol my bad

@walkietalkie nothing about you is smart, an intelligent person wouldnt go around basing their judgment on a single experience or small percentage of a groups members. You have shown your lack of intelligence simply by referring to EVERY ufc fan as a moron because you were stuck around drunk people at one event... i am much smarter than you and i am an avid UFC fan so i guess that makes you less than an "effin moron?"

[LeonardWashington Posted May 17th 2010 1:57AM]

Wrastling is a real sport! "Sir we are firing you and we found gay porn on your ipod..." oh I love south park lol

[gamedude360 Posted May 17th 2010 10:41AM]

@LeonardWashington
yes and no, is it competitive yes, in various ways as any performance. is it a sport in the way that its not predetermined, then no. but also mma origins are in pro wrestling. look at uwfi bushido in japan, pancrase was also the same way in japan. 2 pro wrestling companies with full on legit contact and fighting styles, to work the crowed into thinking it was a legit fight. also you can go further back with antonio inoki vs muhammid ali. ali feared inoki thinking he would embarass him in the ring, so required that kicks only take place when grounded. and even had rules against much grappling. ali was a great boxer, but that was it. anyways it was a boring fight due to ali restrictions. but also led to his brain damage from several kicks from inoki .

pro wrestling as we know it started out as a legit compettion, but then the carny folks out did them with a worked/staged event, and for years no one could tell the difference (granted they tried to look real back then, even had hookers( a hooker is someone who can legit stretch the fark outta ya ) to face random town folk in special challenges to show that they were legit.

will mma as we know it always be non scripted? maybe, maybe not, it wasn't always "real"

[OC Technophile Posted May 17th 2010 2:44AM]

i'm all for UFC and MMA action, but what if the stream goes down or it starts buffering during the fight? you're gonna wonder why you didn't order it on PPV