LFA 144 was an MMA event that went down over the weekend, while introducing some interesting new tech for viewers.
The LFA has been around as one of the biggest of the smaller MMA shows, serving a vital role of helping to funnel talent to the UFC, even going so far as to form a deal with one another so that LFA cards stream on UFC Fight Pass. In fact, many of the UFC best fighters have completed under the LFA banner, such as Anthony Smith, Kevin Holland, and Adrian Yanez to name but a few.
LFA 144 Debuts VR Format
The latest event that LFA had saw them head to Sioux Falls, South Dakota with a vacant bantamweight title up for grabs between Muin Gafurov and Diego Silva in the main event. Although despite how exciting the fights turned out to be, they were not the biggest talking point to come out of this event.
LFA 144 would see the debut of a VR viewing experience, in which Oculus users can experience the action of the event from the vantage point one would see while sitting cageside at the event. The uncrowned king of MMA Twitter, Caposa would document his quasi-cageside MMA viewing experience using the VR headset, and post clips to his account.
In the first clip, you can see Caposa seemingly enjoying the MMA in VR experience, using the Oculus controllers to cheer at the finish, and even showering a little confetti. In terms of the viewing experience, it actually does seem to feel like a cageside seat, in large part.
Things were even more fun for the main event, which ultimately saw Gafurov score a spinning back kick finish over Silva. From the VR cageside angle, Caposa got a unique vantage point of Gafurov climbing on the cage and being forced down by the referee.
However, like any up and coming technology, there were some bumps in the road, although in this instance it almost made the experience more realistic. There was one angle that Caposa was found in, which was not the most optimal for seeing the finish, as it was clocked by the cage.
All things considered, this was nothing short of an interesting development to come from LFA 144. With the UFC recently forming a budding relationship with the folks at Meta, perhaps MMA in VR will be an experience that spans beyond the LFA.
What did you think of the VR MMA viewing angle?