Start your free seven-day trial, open the ESPN+ app on fight night, and watch the entire MMA card in real time. Every numbered pay-per-view preliminary, every “Fight Night” bracket, and every weigh-in show streams exclusively there; no extra sports package or cable login is required.
The promotion renews its digital deal through 2025, so expect every future Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi, São Paulo or London gathering to appear on the same hub. International viewers can still buy bouts à la carte, but inside the United States the ESPN+ subscription is the only legal doorway.
Tip: add the bout to your calendar from the match-up page; the app pushes a ringside reminder five minutes before the broadcast window opens.
Check the ESPN Plus schedule for numbered PPV prelims
Open the ESPN+ app every fight-week Thursday; the four-bout preliminary slate for numbered pay-per-views is locked in by noon ET and airs exclusively on the platform starting 18:00 ET Saturday.
Miss the window and you’re stuck with GIFs on social media–set a phone alert for 17:45 ET so you catch walk-outs and the flyweight scramble that usually steals the show.
- Prelims run roughly 2 h 15 m, ending moments before the PPV opener.
- Replays are clipped to 90-second highlight packages within two hours.
- Spanish commentary toggle sits under the “Audio” icon on web; mobile users swipe down.
- Five-dollar monthly bet credits appear in your sportsbook wallet if you watch the full prelim block; claim via the “Offers” tab before midnight.
Look for the purple “PRELIMS” banner inside the “Schedule” row; if it’s greyed out, log out and back in–geofencing bugs still haunt border states.
International Fight Week and MSG cards sometimes bump the start to 17:30 ET; ESPN posts the tweak on Wednesday, so recheck the listing before ordering pizza.
- Add the bout order to your calendar–each fight link auto-updates if a fighter misses weight.
- Download the episode for offline metro viewing; file expires 48 h after broadcast.
- Cast from the app rather than Chrome tab; the latter drops frames during 1080p/60.
Bookmark espn.com/ufc/schedule?filter=prelims; the URL never changes and shows timezone-adjusted start times for every numbered card through December.
Identify which Fight Night cards are exclusive to the app
Open the schedule inside the service and filter by “Fight Night”; any show tagged “Exclusive” streams only there. All Wednesday and Saturday preliminary slates, plus most international morning bills, never leave the platform.
If the main card lacks a pay-per-view banner and the venue sits outside Nevada or Florida, odds are it’s app-only–bookmark the bout order page, refresh after weigh-ins, and you’ll see the padlock icon vanish from linear listings while the mobile feed stays locked in.
Set up notifications for last-minute streaming changes
Turn on push alerts in the ESPN app: open settings, tap “Fight Nights,” slide “Remind Me” to green, and allow banners; the feed can hop from cable to online with less than ten minutes’ notice.
Calendar sync keeps Apple or Google calendars in step: paste the bout sheet URL into a new subscription and set refresh to 5 min; if the promoter swaps a prelim to the main card, the slot updates automatically.
Follow the official broadcaster on Twitter and activate all-post notifications; their ops team tweets blackout maps, start-time shifts, and blackout lifts faster than any email list.
Smart-speaker routines help too: “Alexa, announce fight updates” triggers a skill that pings every time the broadcast window slides; it reads the new bell time aloud so you never miss a walk-off KO while cooking.
Lastly, keep the phone’s Do Not Disturb off for that single ESPN contact; 3 a.m. alerts stink, but a pulled pay-per-view switching to the subscription side can save you sixty bucks if you act in the first refund window.
Use the ESPN Plus search filter to spot UFC replays
Open the app, tap the magnifying glass, type “full fight replay” and toggle the sport filter to mixed martial arts; every past cage session appears in under three seconds, sorted newest-first.
Need a specific athlete? Add his last name right after the phrase; the engine narrows the list to only his bouts, stripping out highlight clips and press-conference junk.
If you’re hunting free content, slide the price toggle to zero; anything behind the paywall vanishes, leaving only the open library ready for midnight binge-watching.
Compare blackout rules across U.S. regions before buying
If the fight card features a hometown contender, assume your ZIP code will be blacked out on the app and you’ll need the local pay-per-view instead.
Texas enforces a city-level block; a Dallas IP sees the prelims but loses the main card if a Texan challenges for the belt. Florida goes further–Miami-Dade, Orlando and Jacksonville all vanish from the feed the moment the fighter walkouts start, forcing cable ordering.
| State | Blackout trigger | Workaround |
|---|---|---|
| Nevada | Any title bout | Buy via regional cable |
| California | Fighter residence within 100 mi | Stream from mobile data |
| New York | MSG-linked bouts | satellite PPV |
Colorado flips the script: Denver sees the whole show free on the app because no local athlete is booked, while rural mountain towns still get hit when a Colorado Springs native appears on the slate.
Midwest rules shift by broadcaster agreement. Chicago viewers lose the headline fight unless they authenticate through a cable login, but Indianapolis keeps every bout live because the regional sports network passed on exclusivity.
Before tapping purchase, punch your ZIP into the support page map; the color code flips in real time as contracts update and one county’s green check can turn red hours before the first glove touches the canvas.
Bundle ESPN Plus with Disney to lower monthly UFC cost
Grab the Disney bundle–Disney+, ad-supported Hulu, and the sports add-on–at $14.99 a month and cancel the standalone fight pass; you’ll pocket $6–7 every billing cycle while keeping every cage card.
Big pay-per-view nights stay $79.99, yet the yearly savings from the combo offset three of those purchases; set a calendar reminder to re-subscribe only on fight weeks and freeze the plan in between.
Split the bundle with a roommate or family member: one profile locks on the Octagon prelims, another binge-watches Star Wars, and the tab drops below six bucks apiece.
Students knock another 25 % off, so dorm dwellers can chase submissions and princess movies for roughly ten dollars total–cheaper than a single arena beer.
Curious how niche sports use the same trick? Watch curlers escape jams for pennies in this clip: https://livefromquarantine.club/articles/homan-makes-spectacular-triple-takeout-to-escape-big-jam-vs-team-sweden-and-more.html, then apply the hack to your fight-night budget.
FAQ:
Do all UFC pay-per-view cards still hit ESPN+ or did something change after the new deal?
Only the numbered PPVs stream live on ESPN+; Fight Night shows have stayed there since 2019. The five-year renewal signed in 2023 keeps that split the same, so you won’t see a random PPV jump to another platform. If the main event has a belt on the line and costs extra, you’ll find it on the ESPN+ PPV section; everything else is part of the regular subscription.
I only have the Disney bundle—no ESPN+ add-on. Can I still watch the prelims or do I need the standalone app?
The Disney bundle (Disney+ and Hulu) doesn’t auto-unlock ESPN+ content. You need the ESPN+ tile inside the same account; if it shows “Subscribe,” you’re blocked. Once you add the $10.99/month ESPN+ plan, every prelim streams inside the ESPN app on the same login. No extra hardware, just one more subscription line on the same bill.
Why did last Saturday’s card start on ESPN2 and then tell me to switch apps mid-broadcast?
UFC spreads each event across TV windows to push cable viewers toward the app. Early prelims air on ESPN+, the middle block flips to ESPN or ESPN2, and the final five fights return to ESPN+ if it’s a Fight Night. The network announces the hand-off on-air; if you miss it, the ESPN app auto-loads the next feed once you authenticate.
Is there a cheap way to catch just one PPV without keeping ESPN+ all year?
You can cancel ESPN+ right after the fight and still rewatch the replay for a month. Buy the PPV while an active monthly member ($10.99), watch live, then turn off auto-renew. The charge for the PPV itself ($79.99) isn’t refunded, but you avoid the next month. Reactivate the same account later and your library stays intact.