MMA Junkie reports that the three stripes, sporting apparel giant, Adidas is entering the sponsorship market of MMA. Through its global licensee Double D, Adidas Combat Sports has entered into a multi-year deal with Ed Soares’ Resurrection Fighting Alliance.
Soares’, also known for managing Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo among others, is positioning his promotion as a feeder league for the UFC. The RFA-UFC connection may be a reality considering RFA will be allowed to use the Octagon for its event this weekend. A good move considering Adidas would like to enter into the area mixed martial arts.
Payout Perspective:
The agreement between RFA and Adidas is a good sign that mainstream sponsors are still eyeing the sport of MMA for sponsorship opportunities. The RFA relationship seems to represent a bigger plan to enter into the MMA market as the article indicates it would like to work with the UFC although it would focus time with “grass-roots efforts.” You may recall that Reebok and Zuffa were in talks about partnering, however, we’ve seen the Reebok logo appearing in Bellator.
Adidas own Reebok but I think they run it separately. Adidas made the RFA gloves for their last event (like Everlast does with Bellator) so I could see Adidas doing the same for the UFC, like they do with player jerseys in the NBA. They couldn’t do fighters shorts as it would be taking more money from the fighter as it would take away from sponsors like Nike, Tapout, Affliction etc but the gloves only say UFC on them.