UFC announces Russian broadcast deal

The UFC's global television expansion continues.

The MMA promotion has partnered with Russian broadcasters VGTRK (The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company) to make all UFC events in 2015 available across a series of channels and outlets starting with UFC Fight Night: Gustafsson vs. Johnson on Jan. 24.

"Russia is firmly on our target list as a focal point of MMA within Europe with a fantastic fanbase and great UFC fighters," UFC EMEA senior vice president and general manager David Allen said in a release on UFC.com. "VGTRK have an impressive background in sport across all of their outlets and their experience and knowledge is evident, we are thrilled to partner with them and look forward to satisfying demand for the UFC and propelling the sport within Russia together."

The UFC has 20 Russian fighters currently under contract. Two of them, Konstantin Erokhin and Albert Tumenov, will be featured on the Gustafsson-Johnson card in Stockholm.

"Martial arts are traditionally very important for our company," VGTRK head of sports broadcasting Alexander Taschin said. "We followed the success of the UFC and have noticed a growing interest of the audience in the country, which we expect is due partly to the 20 Russian fighters who participate in UFC championship."