USA TODAY Sports

LAS VEGAS — The Ultimate Fighting Championship has acquired the complete video libraries of eight of the most famous and respected mixed martial arts promotions in the history of the sport.

The libraries of Pancrase, Extreme Challenge, Cage Rage, Hook and Shoot, TKO Canada, King of the Cage, UCMMA and XFO are in the process of being secured and flown to the United States. From there, the tapes will be digitized and added to the digital subscription service beginning in the spring.

The announcement was scheduled to be made during a special media conference on Saturday afternoon prior to the start of UFC 182: Jones vs. Cormier.

In an exclusive interview on Friday afternoon, Zuffa Chief Content Officer Marshall Zelaznik told Bleacher Report that the success of the Invicta promotion led the Fight Pass team to explore new options for adding more content libraries. In particular, heavy usage of the Invicta library on Fight Pass indicated that hardcore fans, coaches and fighters around the world would be willing to utilize more hours of archival content.

To begin their search, they went to one of the best sources of mixed martial arts knowledge in the world.

"Joe Silva gave me his list. I said if you were going to try to get old stuff, what would you get first?" Zelaznik said. "And Joe made a list."

Zelaznik began to explore options. He was approached by what he described as "many promotions around the world" who saw the success of Fight Pass and wanted to know if they could be involved. Zelaznik began closing deals with some of the more notable promotions on Silva's list.

Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

The first bits of archival footage will not appear on Fight Pass until the spring. Zuffa has teams flying to England, Japan and other locations to assess the physical quality of each library and ensure it can be prepared for the archiving process.

Once the quality is approved, the libraries will be flown to the United States, and a newly expanded Fight Pass team will begin to import the various tape formats and convert them to a digital format.

The addition of the new libraries will move the total fight count on the service from 5,000 to over 13,000.

The Fight Pass team will also begin creating shoulder programming such as compilations featuring the best fights from each promotion or "mix tapes" featuring current UFC stars in the early portions of their careers. Subscribers will be able to see, for example, Georges St-Pierre competing for TKO Canada in 2003 or Michael Bisping in Cage Rage.

But the new Fight Pass additions won't just be limited to libraries, Zelaznik said. There will come a day when you'll see promotions such as Pancrase or King of the Cage broadcasting live on Fight Pass, much the same way as Invicta does.

"Once we start getting more content, we'll look into opportunities for live events," Zelaznik said. "KOTC does 40 events a year. Pancrase does 12 to 18 a year."

Zelaznik would not discuss specific numbers for live Fight Pass events, per Zuffa policy, but noted that the growth "has exceeded even our most aggressive expectations." He also said that he's proud of where Fight Pass has gone, one year after it was launched.

The service is slowly becoming the go-to resource for historical mixed martial arts footage, and Zelaznik is proud to be involved with those keeping the history of the sport alive.

"I'm really proud of the Fight Pass team. We launched it with some of the longest-tenured Zuffa employees," he said. "We are really starting to become the group that is going to maintain this history, and I am proud of that."

NEW LIBRARY ADDITIONS TO FIGHT PASS

Cage Rage

Extreme Challenge

XFO

UCMMA

Hook and Shoot

TKO Canada

King of the Cage

Pancrase

All quotes were obtained firsthand.