Kerrith Brown (© Brave Combat Federation)

The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation has signed a media rights agreement with Fighting Spirit for the worldwide sales of its broadcast programming. The IMMAF is the only legitimate global governing body for amateur MMA working for Olympic recognition.

With 100 nations as members and National Olympic Committee recognition in around 40 countries, the IMMAF has a seven-year track record of organizing nations MMA Championship tournaments with a rich back catalogue of programme material. The federation’s recent World Championships in 2019 featured over 400 matches over five days while its Continental and World events continue to grow exponentially year-on-year.

Fighting Spirit is the leading agency of combat sports around the globe. Specialized both in delayed and live distribution, it is a well-known established company in the field of international TV distribution.

“IMMAF is pleased to be signing with Fighting Spirit,” IMMAF president Kerrith Brown said. “Our MMA platform is growing in size, depth of talent and brand stature and ours is a young sport with high engagement among the millennial and Z generations.”

“In 2020, we have committed to offering a calendar of broadcast material with television packages available for our Asian Open Championships, European Open Championships, Under-18s Youth World Championships and World Championships,” Brown continued. “We invite broadcasters to benefit from showcasing world-class amateur mixed martial arts action from IMMAF.”

Founded in 2005 and based in France, Fighting Spirit is the worldwide expert in combat sports media rights. It has become a reference on the international market with a 3,000-hour catalogue of premium combat sports programmes broadcast across 150 countries.

“Fighting Spirit is honored to work with IMMAF,” Fighting Spirit CEO Laurent Pourrut said. “Our strategy will be to give the best worldwide exposure to IMMAF but also to see that IMMAF co-exists with professional promotions in terms of its TV exposure.”

“Fighting Spirit distributes well-established MMA brands such as Professional Fighters League (PFL) and M-1,” Pourrut continued. “There are a lot of synergies.”