Legionfarm, a San Francisco-based Y Combinator-backed startup, announced that on February 12, 2022, it would host the first professional fight in the metaverse starring mixed martial arts (MMA) legends Khabib Nurmagomedov and Max Holloway at the event. major. Big-name fighters came together in the multiplayer virtual reality (VR) boxing game Creed: Rise to Glory, while another MMA legend, Daniel Cormier, served as a commentator for the event, which streamed live on Twitch.

Prior to the fight, fans were able to attend an exclusive event on Mozilla Hubs where Nurmagomedov and Holloway answered questions and fought with their fans in a live VR boxing match. To attend the party via browser or VR headset, users had to purchase a non-fungible token (NFT) as a membership card to enter the club. While professional sports fans are already familiar with trading cards in the form of NFTs featuring notable moments from fights, Legionfarm provided a whole new level of immersive experience.

“NFTs are not [simply] a modern phenomenon, they are the way the future does business,” said Alexey Beliankin, CEO of Legionfarm. “To start the transition, we have launched our ERC-721 NFT protocol. Owners of these NFTs will be the first to gain a sizable stake in our ERC-20 protocol token that carries the weight of governance in Legionfarm’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Holders will be the first to receive the token as an airdrop, free at this early stage.”

Legionfarm is a video game coaching and coaching service that matches professional gamers with busy older gamers who still want to spend quality time playing, improving their skills and having fun. Legionfarm already has 5,000 active professional players and over 60,000 regular users. 

Legionfarm has raised over $17 million, in two rounds. Of that amount, $6 million in the first round in May 2021 came from Y Combinator, TMT Investments, Silicon Valley Bank, Scrum Ventures, Altair Capital, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, and Teachable co-founder Ankur Nagpal. The remaining $11 million came from Winter Capital and Alex Summers, Activision’s manager of live operations, among others. 

With such a successful start, the platform is now taking a step towards transformation into a win-win game engine and a Web3 gaming guild, following the creation of a DAO.

After the fight, visitors were able to visit the VR guest rooms at Mozilla Hubs which allowed them to interact with the community and take the opportunity to ask the athletes anything they wanted. Nurmagomedov had previously announced his partnership with the startup on Twitter and Instagram. Daniel Cormier, Max Holloway and Islam Makhachev have also signed a long-term partnership contract with Legionfarm.