Two belts on the line, two main events, that’s what UFC 248 is all about. On March 7th, 2020, Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya will put his title on the line against Yoel Romero at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s not all. The event also includes a women’s strawweight bout featuring Weili Zhang as she defends her title against former champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Such action demands a live audience, and streaming services around the world provide you with exactly that. Don’t know your way around yet? Then here’s how you can watch UFC 248 live anywhere.
UFC 248: Adesanya vs. Romero – The Streaming Channels
Before you check the list of official UFC 248 broadcasters, there are a couple of things we need to discuss first. UFC became a very popular promotion, with 278 million viewers back in 2017.
UFC’s programming now reaches 1.1 billion households in 163 countries, which shows why many official broadcasters exist on a global scale. However, such popularity does not come without restrictions.
In fact, each channel airing the event is only available in a certain location. It’s what we call geo-blocking, a mechanism performed by streaming services to limit or terminate user access based on their geographical location.
You see, the channels on our list examine your IP address to determine your location. If you’re not within their coverage area, you’re not accessing their content. We’ll show you an example later on in the article, along with a solution to the issue.
But for the time being, here are the top official channels for UFC 248 around the world:
- ESPN+ (USA)
- DAZN (Germany)
- Viaplay (Sweden, Denmark)
- OSN (Middle East)
- Main Event (Australia)
- UFC Fight Pass
- Match TV (Russia)
- UFC Arabia (MENA)
- BT Sport (UK)
- TSN (Canada) (Prelims Only)
Now that you know what the channels are, let’s dig deeper into the matter.
UFC’s Georestrictions and Blackouts
When it comes to UFC events, streamers will come across two different types of issues along the way. There are geo-restrictions and regional blackouts. First, let’s see what the blackouts look like.
If you live in a country where a TV provider has the rights to show certain content, online streaming channels that also air the event will suffer a blackout. For example, UFC’s own streaming service Fight Pass is blacked out in the United States due to the fact that ESPN+ has the official rights to broadcast the promotion.
You won’t even be able to purchase the PPV if you’re holding a US IP address. Go ahead, give it a try, this is what you get instead:
As seen in the image above, UFC Fight Pass is redirecting users to purchase the event on ESPN+. In the past, a different message would appear, but after the website’s update, that’s not the case anymore.
Now, let’s talk about geo-restrictions. We already gave you an introduction to how it works. It’s all about your IP address. For example, ESPN+ is only available to those who reside in the United States, i.e., users who hold a US IP address.
If you live abroad, that’s exactly what you lack, and ESPN+ will block your access on the spot. The same goes for each and every channel on our list today. Below, you’ll see several errors from some of the channels as examples of geo-blocks:
- ESPN+: “ESPN+ is not available in your country due to content rights issues.”
- UFC Arabia: “UFC Arabia is not available in your area.”
- BT Sport: “Sorry, this video is not available in your country.”
So, you now know what it looks like. In the next section, you’ll learn everything you need about how to circumvent such restrictions and watch UFC 248 live anywhere.
Adesanya vs. Romero – Global Live-Stream
In the past, bypassing geo-restrictions wasn’t an easy task, if not impossible. However, now, we use an excellent tool that allows us to do so with a push of a button. It’s a Virtual Private Network, but you might know it as a VPN.
A VPN works by routing your device’s internet connection through a private VPN server of your choosing. The software acts as an intermediary of sorts as you connect to the internet, thereby hides your IP address and protects your identity.
Also, once you establish a connection, the VPN will shield your data with top military-grade encryption. In other words, if your traffic is somehow intercepted, it will be unreadable. As your data passes through the VPN’s server, the service will enhance your security and anonymity (as we mentioned).
However, a VPN does one little extra thing that’s going to help us today; it replaces your IP address with a temporary one based in the country where the server is located. This spoofs your online location and allows you to appear almost anywhere.
For example, if you connect to an American server, you’ll obtain a US IP address, gaining access to the likes of ESPN+, and dozens of US-based channels no matter where you reside. Please note that the same process can be done for all the channels on our list, provided you connect to a server in their respective countries.
UFC 248 Live Anywhere – The Steps
Now that you know what a VPN is and does, let us show you how you can unblock any of the channels above and watch Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero live anywhere:
- First, you must subscribe to a credible VPN provider. Please make sure that it’s a premium one as free providers tend to sell your information to third-parties for revenue. We always recommend the top, and ExpressVPN is definitely an excellent service for the job.
- Download and install the VPN application on your device. If ExpressVPN is your choice, you’ll have several platform options, including Android, PC, Mac, iOS, and Fire Stick.
- Next, run the VPN client and sign in with your username and password.
- Open the server list and connect to a server according to the channel you wish to stream UFC 248 on:
- US server for ESPN+.
- UK server for BT Sport.
- Australian server for Main Event.
- German server for DAZN, etc…
- Launch the channel’s website or its dedicated app.
- Stream UFC 248: Adesanya vs. Romero live anywhere.
You might ask yourself, why did we recommend ExpressVPN? Basically, we follow a strict evaluation process to determine a provider’s credibility. According to what we’ve witnessed while assessing ExpressVPN, the provider passed all the tests with excellent colors.
First, ExpressVPN’s server distribution is amazing, covering over 94 countries around the world. Second, the provider has all it takes to secure your browsing activities courtesy of its top-notch features such as a kill switch, zero-logging policy, military-grade encryption, and split tunneling.
As for streaming, ExpressVPN offers blazing fast speeds along with a Smart DNS service for those who are looking to stream their content without having to withness that speed loss an encryption causes.
On the other hand, ExpressVPN wasn’t the only provider that passed the tests we usually perform. There are other services worth mentioning and they’re presented in the table below:
- 30-Day Money-back Guarantee
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Apps For All Your Devices
- 24/7 Live Support
UFC 248 – The Fight Card
You now have everything you need to know about the channels broadcasting UFC 248 and how to unblock in your country. All that’s left to know about the event taking place on March 7th, 2020 featuring Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero is the fight card.
Who’s co-main eventing? What matches should we expect in the undercard? Find out below:
Main Card
- Israel Adesanya (c) vs. Yoel Romero
- Neil Magny vs. Li Jingliang
- Zhang Weili (c) vs. Joanna Jędrzejczyk
- Sean O’Malley vs. José Alberto Quiñónez
Preliminary Card
- Rodolfo Vieira vs. Saparbek Safarov
- Beneil Dariush vs. Drakkar Klose
- Alex Oliveira vs. Max Griffin
- Gerald Meerschaert vs. Deron Winn
- Mark Madsen vs. Austin Hubbard
- Emily Whitmire vs. Polyana Viana
- Danaa Batgerel vs. Guido Cannetti
- Jamall Emmers vs. Movsar Evloev
Watch UFC 248 Live Anywhere – Final Thoughts
Back in October, Adesanya got a devastating second-round win over Robert Wittaker. He has yet to taste defeat in the UFC. The question is, what makes Romero so different from the ones that came before him?
Will he be able to dethrone the champ and take away his belt? Guess we’ll find out on March 7th, 2020, when UFC 248 goes live. Now you have all the means to stream it live online. If you need an extra helping hand, make sure to drop us a line or two in the comment section below.