UFC 304 has been officially announced for July 27th and sees the promotion head back to Manchester, England for a rare pay-per-view in the region.
Dana White had previously indicated that a major UK event was in the works, even although traditionally they have been reluctant to put on numbered PPV shows their due to the time differences making it bad for business in the North American market.
However, this time around UFC officials have come up with a solution – air the event live in it’s usual North American time slot and trust that the UK fans in attendance will put up with the fact that the show won’t start until 11pm in Manchester, with the main card going live for them at 3am.
An extra point of interest for those who plan to attend is that it’s going to be the first sporting event to be held at the new Co-Op Arena in Manchester, which is set to be the largest indoor arena in the UK with the capacity for 20,500 seated fans or 23,000 standing.
At this stage no fights have been made official for the show, but White has been hinting that the likes of interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall and welterweight kingpin Leon Edwards could both potentially be defending their belts on the card.
“I’m so excited to get back to Manchester and no better time than this summer,” White said. “We have two champions from the UK and fans have been dying for a UFC PPV event. So here we come to the largest indoor arena in the UK. See you soon, England.”
