Report: UFC 2021 Schedule To Begin On Fight Island
The UFC will be returning to Fight Island next month.
That’s according to BJ Penn who reported Tuesday that the January 16 Fight Night event as well as the UFC 257 pay-per-view event would take place in Abu Dhabi.
Recent fight contracts have been said to have Fight Island as the location. However, it is unclear if the January 30 event would also take place on Fight Island.
The January 16 event will be headlined by a mouth-watering featherweight clash between former champion Max Holloway and rising contender Calvin Kattar. UFC 257, of course, is headlined by the return of Conor McGregor as he meets Dustin Poirier in a rematch that will take place in the lightweight division this time.
The news isn’t completely a surprise.
Fight Island was previously mentioned by Dana White as a likely location for UFC 257 and it appears there is now more confirmation of that.
The UFC head honcho also revealed that he would be trying to get fans in attendance in addition to making International Fight Week take place on Fight Island.
“I’m looking to make it International Fight Week. The new Etihad Arena will be open, and that thing was designed with us in mind. Concerts, pool parties, all kinds of cool stuff. And, yes, I hope to bring fans back. … That’s what I’m shooting for.
“… It would be good to have fans. And the thing is, from ‘Fight Island’ we can get fans all over the world there. It’s an easy destination to get to, a fun destination to go to, and we can just (expletive) blow the doors off this thing.
“I’m ready for some fights with fans. I’m ready to go to a live concert. I’m ready to have some parties. I’m gonna go to all this sh*t. I want to mingle with the fans again. I want the fans back. We’ve figured this whole thing out up to now. We’ll figure out how to do do this safely and pull this thing off in Abu Dhabi.”
It’s looking more and more likely that there will be fans in attendance for McGregor’s return at the very least.
What do you make of the UFC returning to Fight Island for January?
