Dana White says Asia, Australia back on UFC post-pandemic menu & More News Here

Issued on: 09/06/2022 – 06:34

The US-based Ultimate Fighting Championship can be back with a bang in Singapore on Sunday morning — prime time Saturday evening within the United States — with two world title fights headlining a top quality UFC 275 card.

The final time UFC staged an occasion in Asia was at Busan, South Korea, in December 2019 and White stated he was seeking to relaunch growth plans for the US-based operation that have been put on maintain for greater than two years due to Covid-19.

“Wherever we can get it done, I’m ready to go,” White informed AFP. “I want to show that as soon as we can start getting business as usual again, I’m ready to roll.”

Top of the invoice on the Singapore Indoor Stadium would be the mild heavyweight conflict between Brazilian world champion Glover Teixeira and Czech Jiri Prochazka.

It can be preceded by a girls’s flyweight world title struggle between the Kyrgyzstan-born Valentina Shevchenko and Brazil’s Taila Santos.

China’s massively standard former strawweight world champion Zhang Weili additionally options on an undercard stacked with high Asian MMA expertise.

Ahead of {that a} “Road to UFC” match, designed to unearth the subsequent technology of Asian fighters, will on Thursday and Friday showcase 32 fighters from conventional MMA strongholds South Korea and Japan to rising international locations similar to India and China.

“Our goal in every country all around the world is to cultivate talent, and build the sport,” stated White, who revealed he was eager to discover including a girls’s atomweight (48kg) division to the UFC with a watch on the Asian market.

Atomweight is a conventional energy base amongst Asian girls fighters however till now they’ve needed to bulk as much as strawweight (52kg) to get an opportunity in UFC.

“I think that we’re going to have to dive deeper into Asia and start doing some more building over there but I can absolutely, positively, see us adding that division,” stated White, who was talking to AFP from his Las Vegas workplace.

Record crowds

The pandemic swept throughout the globe in 2020 simply months after UFC had opened the doorways of a $14 million Performance Institute in Shanghai — a world-class coaching facility established to develop MMA fighters from China and past.

Auckland in New Zealand did handle to stage a UFC Fight Night card in February 2020 a number of weeks earlier than the world of sport floor to a halt due to coronavirus.

But there was nothing since in Asia or Australasia, a market that also boasts the highest two greatest crowds in UFC within the promotion’s historical past.

Melbourne noticed 57,127 pack into the Docklands Stadium in 2019 to surpass the earlier report of 56,214, set on the identical venue for Ronda Rousey’s shock defeat to Holly Holm in 2015. White is understandably eager to return to Australia quickly.

“The past few years have been massive for us, absolutely massive,” stated White.

“Look at the amount of talent coming out of the region now.

“Singapore was unimaginable, working with us and pulling this factor off and it is a sold-out occasion. So I’d like to do extra in different places.”

Despite the distance between events in Asia, fighters from the Asia-Pacific region have continued to rise to the top of the UFC ranks.

The middleweight division is ruled by New Zealand’s Israel Adesanya and the featherweight by Australia’s Alexander Volkanovski.

China’s former world strawweight champion Zhang, rising bantamweight star Song Yadong and Australian heavyweight Tai Tuivasa are all on course for title challenges.

“We now have China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand,” said White.

“To be capable to pull opponents from all these totally different locations is thrilling. So anyplace that desires to do enterprise now, we’ll be there.”

© 2022 AFP

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