Dana White has finally confirmed the location of the infamous ‘Fight Island’, and it’s actually one that’s already familiar to UFC fans – Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
The Island has been confirmed to be hosting four events on the 11th, 15th, 18th and 25th of July, with the first event being the stacked UFC 251 card, which will feature no less than three-title fights, including Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns, Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway II and Jose Aldo vs. Petr Yan.
The Fight Island project has fascinated fans and fighters alike since White first mentioned it in April, but while many people had been conjuring up images of a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, the confirmed location doesn’t quite fit the bill.
In fact, Yas Island is actually a man-made island that’s just off the shore of Abu Dhabi and is already a popular tourist destination that hosts a Formula One event each other and is also home to Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World, Sea World and Yas Waterworld.
Furthermore, it’s worth pointing out that the UFC has actually hosted two events on the man-made Yas Island in the past.
The UFC first landed on the Island back in 2010 for UFC 112, which was the promotion’s first ever event in Abu Dhabi and would go down in history as one of their worst ever pay-per-views, with the main event in particular between Anderson Silva and Demian Maia being so tepid that it left Dana White seething with rage.
However, the promotion have since banished that bad memory by returning to the Island just last year with a card headlined by lightweight champion Kahbib Nurmagomedov going up against Dustin Poirier.
The brief promotional video for Fight Island released today shows an Octagon on the beach, but that while that actually exists it’s quite possible it’s just there for marketing purposes as Dana White told TMZ recently that they have actually built a small arena for the events.
