Dana White has now officially confirmed that the first three events on the UFC’s 2021 schedule in January will be held on Fight Island, Abu Dhabi in the space of just eight days.
It all begins on Saturday, January 16th with UFC Fight Night 184, which is headlined by featherweight action as former champion Max Holloway takes on Calvin Kattar, while the likes of Julianna Pena vs. Sara McMann and Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Li Jingliang also feature on the line-up.
UFC Fight Night 185 is next up on Wednesday, January 20th, with a postponed welterweight showdown between Leon Edwards and Khamzat Chimaev taking center-stage on a card that’s still something of a work-in-progress, but will include Roxanne Modafferi vs. Viviane Arujo.
After that it’s the big one, UFC 257, which sees the return of Conor McGregor as he rematches Dustin Poirier, but this time at lightweight, while Joanne Calderwood faces Jessica Eye and Amanda Ribas squares up to Marina Rodriguez.
White had recently been suggesting that the UFC were working hard behind the scenes to potentially have a full ‘International Fight Week’ on Fight Island that fans could travel to and also attend the three events, but unsurprisingly the latest indicatations are that this won’t be happening after all as the Coronavirus pandemic continues to cause chaos across the globe.
Instead, the UFC are running a competition with Howler Head to give one lucky fan and a guest the chance to travel to Fight Island for the three shows, where he says they will have “the only seats in the house.”
