Coming Soon To UFC Fight Pass? ‘Professional Slapping’

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UFC Fight Pass recently went through a complete design overhaul and while the service still has some annoying quirks and longstanding kinks to work out, it was nice to see the promotion put some serious elbow grease into the service after all the cannibalization that has gone on with the ESPN+ deal.

It’s still kind of crazy to us that the UFC’s own streaming service doesn’t air UFC events live in the United States, but hey … ESPN threw over a billion dollars in rights money, so they get to call the shots. Rather than let the service wither on the vine, the UFC has tried to make up for things by expanding their combat sports offering. Smaller organizations and international promotions abound on the platform. Grappling events as well. Boxing and muay thai? Oh yeah. And now we might be on the verge of getting professional slapping.

Yes, professional slapping.

Dana White recently shared a clip of the niche Russian (of course) competition and sounded pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing. Watching it, you’ll understand why. It’s intense.

”These guys SLAP the SHIT out of each other!!!” White wrote on Instagram. “The guy in the red is the Champ ‘Dumpling’ and he just lost for the first time. I’m thinking about putting these on UFC Fight Pass, what do u guys think?”

We think Arianny Celeste sets the tone right with her top comment: “Lol wtfffff.”

And there’s at least one party pooper that thinks this could actually be a step back for combat sports overall. Here’s Conor McGregor coach John Kavanagh’s dissent.

”Please don’t,” Kavanagh wrote. “Those of us working at a governmental level to get MMA recognized in our country would be effected. We constantly deal with MMA being knowingly mischaracterised by government officials and having this nonsense on the same platform as the UFC would empower them.”

So what do you think, Maniacs? You feeling professional slapping or is it just more X-Arm ridiculousness?