If you’re unfortunate enough to live somewhere snowy and need something to occupy the long nights ahead, the UFC has you covered. They just released their first quarter schedule for 2019 and starting January 26th the promotion will be treating you to a card a week for 11 straight weeks. That’s an event every weekend through all of February and March!
The new era begins Jan. 19. @ESPN, you ready?! pic.twitter.com/joKTwLvO6Z
— UFC (@ufc) November 4, 2018
At this point, that amount of back to back UFC events isn’t unusual … more like the continued normal for a company that’s held 39 events or more a year for the past 5 years. At 11 events scheduled for a single quarter, we seem to be looking at the busiest year for the promotion yet.
Part of that undoubtedly has to do with the UFC’s new broadcast deal with ESPN and ESPN+. Starting in 2019 with these events, the UFC will no longer appear on FOX networks and instead be split across ESPN’s cable service and their ESPN+ streaming service, so now’s the time to start sorting out how you’re going to watch these different sources.
The UFC’s first event on January 19th will feature early prelims on ESPN+, prelims on ESPN, and then end up back on ESPN+ for the main card. Welcome to the new normal, everybody!
Here’s the schedule:
January 19th, Brooklyn, New York – UFC Fight Night on ESPN+
January 26th, Anaheim, California – UFC 233
February 2nd, Brazil – UFC Fight Night on ESPN+
February 9th, Australia – UFC 234
February 17th (Sun), Phoenix, Arizona – UFC Fight Night on ESPN TV
February 23rd, TBD – UFC Fight Night on ESPN+
March 2nd, Las Vegas, Nevada – UFC 235
March 9th, TBD – UFC Fight Night on ESPN+
March 16th, London, England – UFC Fight Night on ESPN+
March 23rd, TBD – UFC Fight Night on ESPN+
March 30th, TBD – UFC Fight Night on ESPN TV