UFC Wants To Open ‘Fight Island’ To Fans In Early 2021

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Abu Dhabi will be the first place UFC holds events with fans, according to company President, Dana White, who is hoping for an “International Fight Week”-type event next year.

When will fans be able to attend an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event again?

It’s a question we’ve been asking for a while, and up until this point company President, Dana White, has said it’s one he has no answer for, that he’s not even thinking about bringing fans back given the situation with the worldwide pandemic. But now that has changed, and it sounds like the answer is early 2021 … if you’ve got the cash to make it to “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

“What we’re going to do, hopefully soon, is give the fans the opportunity to come to ‘Fight Island,’” White told BT Sports. “And this place will be the first place to have a live crowd. Early next year.”

Early 2021, huh? With a Conor McGregor fight possibly coming together on Jan. 23, 2021, we wonder whether that would be the target date for fans. UFC 254 was almost the first UFC event to allow a limited number of general public to attend, but the local government nixed that idea for the moment.

In another interview with Virgin Radio’s Kris Fade, White expanded on how he’d like to set up an “International Fight Week”-type situation.

“I’m telling you right now, I believe Abu Dhabi is probably going to be one of the first places in the world that opens up to the fans because they have everything so dialed in over here,” White said. “And when we do and we do an event here, the people have seen we have showcased everything that this city has to offer. You see that Octagon down on the beach, that shot we did on Saturday where it comes from the sky down over the beach with the pool on the beach. The bar, all the different restaurants that are here, and and the hotels.

“This is a destination, and I don’t think a lot of people realize that,” he continued. “People are now realizing that Abu Dhabi is a bucket list destination. So I think that when we put on our first live event here with fans, people are going to fly in from all over the world. And it’s one of the things that I want to work on you know with the powers that be here is, making like when we open it up to the fans, make the whole week something cool to do every day almost like International Fight Week in Vegas, but doing that here in Abu Dhabi. Because there’s so much to do so much to see so many great places to eat, it’s going to be awesome.”

If this sounds like one big commercial for Abu Dhabi, it’s because that’s exactly what “Fight Island” has been from the beginning. The U.A.E. government isn’t splashing out all the cash to cover for the infrastructure and safety protocols just because it’s huge fans of UFC … this is all about raising its nation’s stature in the global marketplace and in that way “Fight Island” has been a massive, massive success.

We imagine they’re drooling over the potential to host a Conor McGregor fight. With something that big, it may (as Dana White has often repeated) actually seize the title as “Fight Capital of the World” (during Covid-19, at least).

Of course, with case numbers rising at alarming rates around the world as everyone enters a second wave, there’s a good chance none of this happens. We don’t blame UFC for getting cocky after several events on “Fight Island” without a single sick person making it through into the bubble, but statistically speaking, we’re not so sure bringing 10,000+ people in will be as smooth. But hey, that’s a problem for the epidemiologists of Abu Dhabi to deal with. What do you think, Maniacs?