Marshall Zelaznik is an American sports industry executive.

Biography

Having started his career as a lawyer, Zelaznik eventually went in-house with pay-per-view television provider

iN DEMAND In Demand (stylized as iN DEMAND) is an American cable television service which provides video on demand services, including pay-per-view. Comcast, Cox Communications, and Charter Communications (with former independent companies Time Warner ...

as their vice president of programming before later accepting an offer of an executive role with the

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

. In his ten years as executive vice president and chief content officer for the UFC, Zelaznik oversaw the organization's pay-per-view and digital business and was also tasked with growing the organization's presence in markets outside of the United States. During his tenure the UFC opened up markets in the UK, Brazil, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, UAE, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Mexico. Zelaznik created the UFC's own in-house digital streaming platform Fight Pass, which Inc. credits with "helping build UFC's content business into one of the most widely-available sports properties in the world". The UFC subsequently achieved a $4.025bn valuation - the largest-ever sports-industry acquisition, according to the ''New York Times'' - when it was sold by Zuffa LLC to Endeavor. In the wake of the buyout of Zuffa LLC, Zelaznik was released by the new owners and replaced by their own personnel. Zelaznik subsequently accepted a role as chief executive officer of the GLORY kickboxing organization. On March 14, 2020, internal Glory e-mails announced Zelaznik had resigned from Glory. In June 2020 Zelaznik joined Vindex, LLC as Esports Engine's CEO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zelaznik, Marshall American sports executives and administrators Ultimate Fighting Championship Living people Year of birth missing (living people)