Despite streaming pay-per-view UFC events is often frowned upon and is illegal, people continue to do so. Many mediums have cracked down on illegal streams and will shut down broadcasters while they are transmitting unlicensed video. One individual devised a genius way to fool the system and stream UFC 218 by pretending to play a video game.
AJ Lester, a gamer who streams himself playing video games on LiveRaise and Twitch, was able to skirt the rules of streaming illegal video. Lester streamed the entire UFC 218 broadcast on Saturday night by pretending to play EA’s UFC 3. UFC 218 featured the match between featherweight champion Max Holloway and challenger Jose Aldo and Lester pretended that he was playing as the fighters and reacting to the punches as he held a controller and was wearing headphones. Lester even added sound effects to the “gameplay.” At one point he even calls himself out for not blocking an attack. A tweet with Lester’s video went crazy viral, with over 71,000 Retweets and more than 158,000 Likes.
How has he pretended to play a ufc fight on stream to avoid getting copyrighted LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL pic.twitter.com/I4ykqwqrTA
— Aaron (@TheRealSMA) December 3, 2017
In the actual fight, Holloway TKO’d Aldo in the third round and Lester’s reaction was priceless.
https://twitter.com/KanyeTwittee/status/937569920753258496
Halloway retained his title and this was the second time that Holloway defeated Aldo, the first time happening at UFC 212 in June, which also ended in the third round.