I was really hoping that this would be good. But, as with everything the UFC does here lately, they only pay lip service to their customers. Now, some may be asking why I say "Customers" when this app is free. Because I have a FightPass subscription and this app is pretty useless without one. First of all, the audio is ALWAYS "tinny" (that's the best word I can think of to describe it. It kind of sounds like you're listening to it through a tin can. What's worse, most of the time the audio is out of sync. I typically have to do a force stop on the app and then start it over. Then the audio is at least in sync, but still sounds horrible.
Another annoyance is that there's no way (that I have seen) for the app to just remember me so that I don't have to log in every time I launch it. Granted, the FightPass website is just as bad, but it's more annoying to have to do it with a FireStick remote and on-screen keyboard
The video is probably 480p at best. Unlike the website, there is no option to change it.
Another difference from the website is that there is no way to turn on the "flags" in the video. So, you can't jump straight to, say, the Tale of the Tape, or Round 2 or anything like that. Like the website, there is no way to "resume" a video where you left off. Again, this annoyance is multiplied in the app because there's no intuitive way to fast forward. If you click the fast forward button, the video advances 10 seconds. If you hold it, it skips forward farther, but it's a guessing game as to how far ahead you go for every second of holding the button. The time counter doesn't advance at all while holding the button.
Overall, I'm very disappointed with this app. If there were another way to access my Fight Pass on my Fire Stick, I would do it. Yes, I have Firefox installed on my device, but, it's not a lot better for this. If I need to browse the web, I'll just get my laptop. I mentioned "the resources" in the title of this review and mentioned the UFC's overall customer service. Now I will elaborate on that idea. The UFC consistently NETS (yes, NET, not GROSS) over $100 MILLION per year. With those resources, you would think that they could afford to hire better web and app designers. But, as I said, the UFC apparently only pays lip service to their customers' wants and needs. A prime example is how after they landed their ESPN deal (what Dana White has been talking about since Zuffa acquired the company), they make their customers wait 6 months to watch replays of events that are broadcast on ESPN/ESPN+. I'm sure that was part of the deal, since ESPN is gonna milk it for everything it's worth. In the meantime, you have people paying $100/year just for the privilege of waiting 2-6 months to watch a UFC event. I mention that in this review just to point out that if the UFC really cared about their customers, they would make the entire customer experience exponentially better as opposed to taking the money and running.
So, I guess my bottom line will be this. The app is abysmal compared to other apps available for the Fire Stick. But, it's really the only way to access FightPass on the Fire Stick. So, I guess at the end of the day, it's better than nothing....just not by much.



