In the 24-year existence of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the organization has never partnered with a sports drink brand until today. UFC officials announced that BODYARMOR will serve as the first official sports drink partner for the largest Mixed Martial Arts promotion on the planet.
Safer drink for UFC athletes
“BODYARMOR is an industry leader in sports hydration and they are a perfect fit to partner with UFC,” UFC President Dana White said. “Providing UFC athletes with safe, nutritional products while training at the UFC Performance Institute is an important part of helping them maximize their overall performance and BODYARMOR will help us do that.”
According to a release from MyMMANews.com, BODYARMOR is the fastest growing sports drink in its category, having 110% increase in sales from last year.
In addition to product placement at the UFC Performance Institute, BODYARMOR will also serve as the presenting sponsor of select UFC weigh-in events, along with providing corner branding of stools, towels, and buckets inside UFC’s world-famous Octagon during all U.S.-based events. BODYARMOR will also have a presence on UFC.com and live-event programming, as well as being integrated across multiple UFC-based social and digital platforms.
The partnership will not be featured at this coming weekend's UFC 216 pay-per-view broadcast event from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The pairing is set to begin in 2018 although a more specific timeline was not provided.
Better for you
BODYARMOR officials state that their product is a better hydration production product for the user versus competitor products.
According to the BODYARMOR website, "It has more electrolytes, higher in vitamins and potassium, lower in sodium, contains coconut water, naturally sweetened with pure cane sugar, natural flavors and no colors from artificial sources. Other sports drinks are high in sodium, low in potassium, have artificial flavors and colors with little to no nutrients."
The drink does not contain caffeine and is not considered an energy drink.
Consumption before, during, and after physical activity is recommended. There are currently nine different flavors of BODYARMOR's sports drink available to consumers. They also offer a "Lyte" version and water products as well. The brand is associated with top athletes in a variety of sports who have also become investors.
