THE MAIN EVENT: JELLYSMACK SCORES A KNOCKOUT BY SIGNING UFC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION FRANCIS NGANNOU AS THE FIRST PARTNER IN THEIR NEW MARQUEE PROGRAM

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Just in time for his upcoming first title defense, Ultimate Fighting Championship's Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou, the "Baddest Man on the Planet'' and hardest recorded puncher in the world, becomes the first partner to join Jellysmack's new Marquee Program. With this deal, brokered by CAA's Justin Castillo and Marquel Martin with Jellysmack's VP of Marquee Business Aaron Godfred, Jellysmack will help the legendary Cameroonian mixed martial arts fighter to create, edit, and distribute original video content across his YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and more. Jellysmack's new Marquee Program helps prominent public personalities enter the Creator Economy by developing and enhancing their social presence - and their revenue generating power - across multiple social media platforms.

While the popular Jellysmack Creator Program uses the company's cutting edge technology to edit, optimize and distribute creators' existing long-form videos across social media platforms, the Marquee Program goes a step further. This new offering from Jellysmack gives celebrity partners a full creator content strategy. The company provides financing, facilitates creative ideation, oversees content production, and optimizes the end video product to grow a Marquee creator's personal brand online. Each participating creator will be supported by a team of experts backing their creative development and social content syndication.

This partnership with the MMA champion also represents Jellysmack's meteoric growth within the combat sports vertical. Ngannou joins Jellysmack's other well-known combat sports brand partners such as Combate Global, PFL (Professional Fighters League), Karate Combat, and Main Events boxing. In addition to Jellysmack's powerhouse sports team led by Maxime Horbez, the company's executive leadership includes Jess Sargus, Head of Business Affairs and a former MMA fighter and professional combat sports manager who provides essential legal support and strategic subject matter expertise to the partnerships.

"I'm thrilled to announce Francis Ngannou as the newest member of the Jellysmack sports family," says Maxime Horbez, Vice President of Sports at Jellysmack. "In addition to being an incredible athlete, 'The Predator' has a story of resilience and self-confidence that echoes Jellysmack's values and trajectory. He is such an inspiration for all young athletes who aim to do great things."

For Ngannou, the experienced Jellysmack team played an important role in the partnership. "I am so thrilled about this collaboration with Jellysmack," he said. "I have always wanted to explore new creative outlets for my fans, and I'm excited to be able to do that and even more with such a talented group of people."

Much like the Creator Program, Jellysmack's Marquee Program builds and monetizes creators' social channels in record time with no out-of-pocket costs to the talent. Personalities in Jellysmack's Marquee Program retain ownership of all their content. Jellysmack works closely with each partner to ensure their ideas, videos, and edits are aligned with their personal brand. The end result is a world-class social presence that increases global reach, generates advertising revenue, and connects and strengthens their bond with fans no matter what social platform they are on.

"Francis has been looking for a way to create more high quality and entertaining content for his fans, and the Jellysmack Marquee Program is the ideal solution," says Martin, Ngannou's agent. "The collaborative structure of the program combined with Jellysmack's ability to handle multiple social platforms means that Francis can enhance his personal brand while being efficient with his time—something that's essential given his grueling training and travel schedule."

Horbez continues, "Working alongside the UFC champion is a reflection of Jellysmack's strategy to embrace Gen Z's growing appetite for combat sports. Mixed Martial Arts will be one of the most-watched content genres on social media for the foreseeable future, and we want to make sure to distribute the best of it to our amazing audience. We will develop exciting video content hand in hand with Ngannou to give fans an insight into the daily life of one of the most exciting athletes in the world."

About Jellysmack
Co-founded in 2016 by Michael Philippe, Robin Sabban, and Swann Maizil, Jellysmack is the global creator company that detects and develops the world's most talented video creators through technology. The company's proprietary data and video optimization tools drive social audience growth, unlocking new revenue streams and amplifying monetization. The company is currently home to over 400 influential creators, including MrBeast, PewDiePie, Karina Garcia, Bailey Sarian, Patrick Starrr, Nas Daily and Phil DeFranco. Jellysmack optimizes, operates, and distributes creator-made video content to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. The company's creator strategy builds upon its success in scaling its own original content channels in beauty ("Beauty Studio"), soccer ("Oh My Goal"), basketball ("House of Bounce"), gaming ("Gamology"), and more. According to leading global video audience measurement firm Tubular Labs, combined Jellysmack-managed content boasts 10 billion global monthly video views and a cross-platform reach of 125 million unique U.S. users, reaching nearly 45% of all Americans and making it the largest digital-first U.S. company in monthly social media viewers. To learn more, visit jellysmack.com.

About Francis Ngannou
Francis Ngannou was born and raised in the village of Batié, Cameroon. He lived in poverty and had little formal education growing up. As a youngster, he was approached by various gangs in his village to join them. Ngannou refused and decided to use his father's negative reputation as a street fighter as motivation to do something positive and pursue boxing. In his early twenties, Ngannou headed to Paris to pursue professional boxing, and in August 2013 he began training under Didier Carmont. While originally interested in learning how to box, it was his coach who introduced him to the sport of MMA. In record time Ngannou made his way to the largest promotion in the sport, the UFC, where he quickly became a fan favorite. Ngannou has won 9 of his 12 UFC fights by knockout, with the last four occurring within a total time of two and a half minutes. With his March 2021 victory at UFC 260, Ngannou not only defeated the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time, but became the first-ever African born UFC Heavyweight Champion in history. Outside the cage, Ngannou established the Francis Ngannou Foundation to create a structured and safe environment for the children of Batié. He made his feature film debut in the blockbuster movie, FAST 9 in May 2021, and will be seen next in JACKASS FOREVER in February 2022.

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SOURCE Jellysmack

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