The UFC have officially announced ambitious plans to begin a ‘Road To The UFC’ series of tournaments ahead of UFC 275 in Singapore on June 11th.
The plan will see 8-man tournaments taking place across four division, flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight featuring a collection of Asia’s top MMA prospects who will all be vying for a place in the UFC.
The opening fights will all take place during UFC 275 fight week, with the opening round taking place over two events on June 9th and 10th with 10 bouts per day between 2:30am – 8:00 am ET / 2:30 pm – 8:00 pm local time.
The tournament will then continue with semi-finals and finals later this year in Asia.
Participating fighters will come from countries spanning all across Asia, including Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India and from the UFC’s own academy in China.
Additionally, all the fights will take place in front of a live audience, though the venue has still to be confirmed at this stage.
The tournament will provide an interesting lead-in for UFC 275 a day later on June 11th, where two title fights front the show, with light-heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira set to fight Jiri Prochazka, while women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko is set to fight Taila Santos.