Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has partnered with Dapper Labs to launch its set of digital collectibles dubbed UFC Strike. The NFTs will launch on Flow this weekend.
Dapper Labs announced today that it will launch an NFT platform for the popular mixed martial arts organization Ultimate Fighting Championship later this week, following its success with NBA Top Shot and subsequent arrangements with the NFL and LaLiga.
UFC Strike will premiere on Sunday, January 23, immediately following the UFC 270 pay-per-view live event on Saturday.
UFC Strike’s digital collectibles, like Top Shot’s, will be based on video footage from previous events and will be minted on Dapper’s own Flow blockchain. The UFC collectible moments, unlike Top Shot, will include the original soundtrack to match the video clip.
Furthermore, rather than having different tier levels, all of the packs which contain a random selection of moments will be sold at the same price (as with NBA Top Shot).
NFT moments from fighters like Francis Ngannou, Amanda Nunes, Kamaru Usman, Rose Namajunas, Derrick Lewis, and Justin Gaethje will be featured in the first pack.
Dapper Labs and UFC partnership
Dapper’s contract with the UFC was signed before NBA Top Shot was out, which is interesting. According to statistics from DappRadar, the partnership was announced in February 2020, when the NFT sector was still small and niche—well before it grew to $23 billion in trading volume in 2021.
Dapper Labs’ head of partnerships, Caty Tedman, told Decrypt that the company wanted to debut NBA Top Shot first and learn from the experience—which includes serious scaling issues early last year—before launching the UFC memorabilia.
She stated, “We’ve come to the stage where we feel ready to [launch].” “We’re ecstatic to provide UFC fans with a once-in-a-lifetime experience, as well as the utility that comes with this type of product.” We’re finally ready to launch this as the industry and we grow together.”
About the UFC Strike platform
Tedman stated that the UFC Strike platform will be heavily promoted during this weekend’s pay-per-view event, which will include appearances by UFC President Dana White and fighters.
Because the UFC’s own timetable is mostly based on pay-per-view fights that occur every few weeks or so, UFC Strike will plan its releases to coincide with those major events.
The portal will first focus on fights from the previous year, but it will ultimately include highlights from older UFC fights. The first fight in the promotion took place in 1993.
Despite the roughly two-year gap between the original announcement and this week’s launch, Tedman said the UFC which already has a crypto fan token through the Socios.com platform was keen to make a huge statement in the NFT industry.
“Every company has its own personality, and the UFC’s approach is to test with us and try new things with us,” she explained. “It’s fantastic to have a partner that doesn’t say, ‘Well, let’s try it little and see how it goes,’ when you’re talking about how to launch a product.” It’s like, ‘Let’s make it as huge as we can.’ ‘Let’s do it in a UFC-style fight.'”
Unlike Top Shot and the impending NFL All Day platform, UFC Strike will be released to the general public without a closed beta period.
Dapper is investigating live activations at future UFC events, like it has done with the NBA, as well as added value for UFC NFTs, such as potential community or gaming features, according to Tedman.
