How to add the UFC schedule to Google Calendar (and keep it updating)

The short answer: do not download a file. Subscribe to the feed link https://www.ufcalendar.com/api/calendar/ufc.ics in Google Calendar on a computer (Other calendars, then +, then From URL), and every new UFC event, card change, start time and result arrives on its own, on your phone too.

That is the whole trick, and it is the one almost everybody misses. A reader wrote in this week asking if our calendar could "auto-update as events are added." It already does. The problem was the way it got into his calendar, and it is worth a few minutes because the same mistake breaks every sports calendar people try to keep.

Import versus subscribe

There are two ways to get a .ics calendar into Google Calendar, and they behave nothing alike.

Importing a downloaded .ics file copies the events once. Google stores them as if you had typed them in yourself. When a promotion adds a fight, moves a card by a week or loses a headliner on fight week, your copy never hears about it.

Subscribing to a feed URL is different. Google keeps the link and goes back to read it on its own schedule, typically every few hours. Whatever changed on our side shows up in your calendar without you doing anything. A subscribed calendar also sits in its own row under "Other calendars," so you can color it, hide it for a while, or remove all of it in one click.

If your fight calendar has been stuck since the day you added it, you imported it.

Step by step in Google Calendar

1. Open Google Calendar in a browser on a computer. The Google Calendar phone app cannot add a calendar from a URL, so this one step needs a laptop or desktop.
2. In the left column, find Other calendars and click the + next to it.
3. Choose From URL.
4. Paste a feed link, for example https://www.ufcalendar.com/api/calendar/ufc.ics, and click Add calendar.
5. Repeat for every promotion you want. Each one becomes its own calendar.

That is it. Because the calendar lives in your Google account, it appears in the Google Calendar app on your phone as well. If it does not show up there, open the app's settings and make sure the new calendar is switched on.

Had an imported copy before? Delete those events first, or every fight will show up twice.

The calendar page also has a one-click Google Calendar button on every feed. It works for most accounts, but on some Google shows a "you don't have access" screen even though the feed loaded fine. If that happens to you, use the From URL steps above with the Copy link button.

Every promotion has its own feed

You do not have to take everything. Every promotion we cover has its own feed, so you can follow only the ones you care about:

Each promotion's schedule page, like the RIZIN schedule or the Oktagon schedule, carries the same subscribe buttons near the bottom.

Three shapes for each feed

Every feed comes in three versions. Swap the end of the link to pick one:

• Complete events (ufc.ics): one entry per event with the full fight card in the notes.
• Card sections (ufc-sections.ics): early prelims, prelims and main card as separate entries at their own start times. This is the one to pick if you only sit down for the main card.
• Fight by fight (ufc-fights.ics): one tentative entry per bout at its estimated start. Busy, but handy on a night you only care about one fight.

Times arrive in your calendar's own time zone, so there is nothing to convert. When a promotion has only announced a date and not a start time, the entry is an all-day one, and it becomes a timed entry once the clock is published.

iPhone, Mac and Outlook

iPhone and iPad: on the calendar page, tap Apple Calendar on the feed you want and confirm Subscribe. You can also add it by hand: open Settings, then Calendar (on iOS 18 and later it sits under Apps), then Calendar Accounts (just Accounts on older versions), Add Account, Other, Add Subscribed Calendar, and paste the link.

Mac: in the Calendar app, choose File, then New Calendar Subscription, and paste the link.

Outlook.com: Add calendar, then Subscribe from web, paste the link and give it a name.

The same rule holds everywhere: use the link, never a downloaded file.

Just your fighters, or just one fight

If a whole promotion is too much, follow fighters on UFCalendar and create your personal calendar link under My fighters. It holds every bout of the fighters you follow plus any event you subscribed to, and it updates the same way. Keep that link private, since anyone who has it can see who you follow.

And for a single night, every event page and fight page has an Add to calendar button. That one is deliberately a one-time entry for that card or that bout, which is why the menu now labels the download as one-time and points to the subscription right below it.

Every feed is free and needs no account. If something in yours looks wrong, the calendar page is the place to check what the feed should be showing.