Good news for mixed martial arts (MMA) fans: Macao is set to host its first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in a decade, UFC and Galaxy Entertainment Group announced yesterday in a joint statement.
Scheduled for 23 November, the UFC Fight Night will take place at Galaxy Arena. It will be UFC’s fourth event in the SAR since 2012 and its seventh in Greater China.
The organisers noted that UFC’s popularity was on the rise in China, and that the country had produced “several elite fighters and rising stars of the sport” in recent years, including current UFC women’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili. They also highlighted that the world’s largest UFC MMA training and development facility was built in Shanghai in 2019.
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The US-headquartered UFC is the world’s major organiser of MMA events, with rules that allow punches, kicks, elbows, knee strikes, takedowns, and submissions.
UFC senior vice president and head of Asia, Kevin Chang, said he was “ecstatic” to be bringing US-style MMA back to Macao. “Our last UFC event here was a decade ago, in 2014 [and we] can’t wait to put on an electrifying show … to the delight of fans across the region.”
More information about November’s event will be made public on its dedicated website.
