We have a long and entertaining upcoming weekend and not only because it’s Easter, — on April 20th sports events fans will go mad because UFC fight night is bringing the real action into play. To kick things off in the heavyweight scene Alistair Overeem will be facing Aleksei Oleinik, the former coming from kickboxing and the latter from mixed martial arts, needless to say the fight will be a view to behold. Unfortunately, sports events are not as accessible as once was and you will need to take a few extra easy steps to watch the events live stream.

The event will be aired by ESPN, a U.S.-based pay television sports channel. Sadly, they do not offer any free streams and boxing matches can only be accessed through PPV (Pay Per View) service and has U.S. only geographical restrictions. So if you’re out of the country on April 20th or you’re a huge fan outside of The States then ESPN will inform you that you’re not eligible to watch their content. But, as the saying goes, if there’s a will there’s a way, and I will show you a way to easily access live stream no matter where you’re based at, furthermore, I will outline the cheapest way to do it.

Using a VPN

VPN is a Virtual Private Network that first and foremost is a cyber security tool that provides access to geographically blocked content. When you’re visiting ESPN website they check your IP address and if you’re located outside of the United States then you’ll see a message that the service is not available in your country. A VPN allows you to change your IP address by selecting a server in the United States (see image below), this way all your traffic goes through the selected server and ESPN will grant you access to their streaming content.

Three best VPNs for streaming

I have chosen Surfshark as a first pick because they are well known for rapid speeds and excel at bypassing geo-blocks. Furthermore, the cost is only 1.99$/MO for a two-year plan with 83% discount. You can sign up and cancel the subscription after watching the fights and this way you’ll be able to bypass the block for free.

As you can see, I have connected my device to a server in Los Angeles and have obtained an American IP address. And that’s it, now I’m able to access US only content, be it ESPN, YouTube, Netflix, or any other geo-blocked material.

Here’s a link to their deal.

As a second option I would recommend ExpressVPN. This one is a bit pricey, going for 8.32$/MO with 35% discount. But they’ve been praised for solid privacy policies and reliable connection, so if money is not an issue you can rely on their services to grant access to restricted content.

NordVPN is another rock-solid service that currently goes for 2.99$/MO for a 3-year plan with 75% discount. They have an astounding 5000+ number of servers worldwide with 2200 in America so you can be sure you’ll have plenty to choose from to access the stream instantly.

All of these VPNs have a 30d. money back guarantee, so after using them to watch the fights be sure to cancel the subscription and get a refund. However, I would advise to double check all the features they provide and then decide whether you need it or not. Cyber security is a smart thing to invest in these days, but that’s a topic for another time.

Get ESPN+ PPV access

Once you have obtained an American IP address you will need to register to ESPN+ PPV.

As you can see, they do offer 7-day trial so you can register and cancel the subscription after the fights thus saving 5$. Once you have subscribed to ESPN+ you will have to buy their PPV service and this one doesn’t have a free trial, so if you crave to watch the fights live stream then, unfortunately, this one will have to come from your wallet. But that doesn’t have to be on you alone, gather a company of sports lovers, divide the cost for UFC PPV and set up a live stream, you will be able to watch UFC Fight Night live with the rest of the world and on the original streaming platform.