WBD Lands Exclusive U.S. Rights for New Bellator Champions Series

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and the Professional Fighters League (PFL) have struck a deal for the exclusive U.S. media rights for the new Bellator Champions Series.

The mixed martial arts (MMA) championship debuts this Friday, March 22. The new series will stream exclusively on Max and be available on all plans. The series includes eight events staged in cities across the globe, featuring world-ranked fighters and two title fights during each event.

In addition to the eight global events, Max subscribers will have access to two new docuseries, both debuting March 21 ahead of the first event. The series will go behind the scenes and delve deeper into the fighters’ lives as they prepare and train for their matchups.

Further programming available to stream on Max includes a selection from Bellator’s full library, featuring 300-plus events with 3,000 fights, pre-fight, post-fight and original programming, including legends from the sport such as Kimbo Slice, “Rampage” Jackson, Chael Sonnen, Wanderlei Silva, Tito Ortiz and Fedor Emelianenko and the full fight history of Bellator homegrown talent like AJ McKee, Johnny Eblen, Aaron Pico, Michael Chandler and Michael “Venom” Page.

Additionally, TNT Sports will televise a slate of Bellator content throughout the year on the TNT Sports on truTV programming block.

“Following our historic acquisition of Bellator, Professional Fighters League is proud to partner with Warner Bros. Discovery for the highly anticipated Bellator Champions Series to stream exclusively on Max for fans across the United States, at no extra cost to subscribers, when the global franchise launches on March 22,” said Peter Murray, CEO of Professional Fighters League. “We’re excited for audiences to tune into Bellator’s new home on Max for eight Bellator Champions Series events in 2024 taking place in iconic cities around the globe, featuring world title fights and the biggest stars in combat sports. There’s an incredible demand for premium, year-round MMA content from major media platforms, and this is the latest milestone in PFL’s ambition to bring the sport’s best to audiences around the world.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Professional Fighters League to introduce a new live sport to the U.S. Warner Bros. Discovery content portfolio,” said Josh Walker, chief financial and strategy officer for Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming. “The addition of Bellator Champions Series offers our viewers an opportunity to experience highly anticipated mixed martial arts, nicely complementing our robust slate of can’t-miss programming.”