This year's Youth MMA World Championships will be streamed lived by the IMMAF ©IMMAF

The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) has announced that it will stream this year's Youth MMA World Championships live on immaf.tv.

Bulgarian capital Sofia is due to stage three days of competition at the EFE Marinela, between July 30 and August 1. 

Twenty-three countries have registered to compete with 370 athletes aged between 12 and 17 expected to attend.

The IMMAF said it would be relaunching the immaf.tv platform in time for the Championships.

This is part of a bigger project which will integrate live and on-demand content into a new tournament and athlete data interface.

It is planned that this will be ready by the end of the year, with the initiative designed to make IMMAF competitions and talent more accessible for fans to follow.

"The inaugural Youth World Championships in 2019 showcased an unanticipated level of talent and skill from youths world over, demonstrating that MMA's next generation is coming up fast," said IMMAF President Kerrith Brown.

"With MMA being a new sport, its original stars have traditionally come from other martial arts backgrounds, but we now have a generation that has trained in the discipline of MMA since day dot and is raising the bar for the future. 

"IMMAF's unified developments in coaches' education and training pathways, and new mandatory grading requirement for youth competitors, are all contributing to this growth. 

"As we return to play with the 2021 Youth MMA World Championships, I am proud to announce that we be streaming under-18s action live for the first time, in response to demand."

The IMMAF disallows strikes to the head for under-18s, while all participants in Sofia will enter a competition bubble as a COVID-19 precaution.

No fans will be allowed at the event.