UFC Fight Pass

If you’re an ultimate fighting fan, you were probably eager to watch “Suga” Sean O’Malley defend his title against Merab Dvalishvili in Las Vegas last weekend, billed as a “once-in-a-lifetime” event.

And why bother traveling to Sin City when you could stream the match from the comfort of your own home with UFC’s own streaming service, UFC Fight Pass. The streaming service is advertised to offer consumers access to the “entire UFC Fight Library” for just $9.99 a month:

But it may be a punch in the gut for consumers who purchase this Fight Pass when they find out just how many UFC fights this library doesn’t include.

For starters, live UFC Pay-Per-View events are not included and require a separate purchase:

Without the additional purchase, Fight Pass members will have to wait about a month to watch these fights:

This, combined with the fact that UFC’s “fight nights” are exclusively available on ESPN + (and therefore also not available to Fight Pass members) makes us wonder what UFC Fight Pass has in mind when it says that “no one brings you more live fights.”

Even if you are able to access the fight you’re looking for, Fight Pass may not work the way you want. According to consumer complaints on TrustPilot (where the company has just 1.6 stars), the Fight Pass app often gets knocked out due to buffering issues and crashes:

The UFC did not respond to TINA.org’s request for comment.

The Bottom Line:

With the rise of more and more streaming services, consumers should be careful to check that subscriptions really include everything they are expecting before they sign up. As for the UFC, it may need to kick the deceptive marketing before it ends up with a fight on its hands.