Following the signing of a multi-year content deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Chinese mobile subsidiary, Migu, is enjoying a successful start to their partnership with the sporting brand.

A major factor to the success is the timing of a Chinese world champion, in strawweight winner Zhang Weili a major star in her home market.

Weili has been a major success reasoning behind the deal, however, closely monitored investments in the Chinese markets have paved the way for a happy start financially for both parties.

In an interview with SportBusiness, UFC senior vice-president for the Asia-Pacific region, Kevin Chang, said the deal with Migu is one of the most crucial done in the organisation’s history, due to the growth of the Chinese market.

“[The Migu deal] is one of the most significant international deals we’ve done as a company, because China is the most important international market for expansion,” Chang said.

“Our vision is to be a global, iconic sports brand, and undisputed champion of combat sports.

“There’s not really any way to achieve that goal without China.

“We’ve turned the corner,” he said.

The UFC is placing many investment opportunities in China, with the brand committing to producing an Asia-focused version of Dana White’s Contender Series in the nation, whilst the UFC will create bespoke health and fitness content for the Migu fitness app.

Chang said the UFC must take-hold of the advantageous market that is China.

“I think the days of rights-holders coming here and offloading their rights to somebody, and then leading the market for three-to-five years and coming back to do another deal with the expectation that their rights value is going to be higher are behind us,” Chang said.

“The properties that come in really do need to pay strong attention to how to grow and develop, and invest in China,” he told SportBusiness.