BREAKING: Dana White announces on @SportsCentre that UFC 231 will take place in Toronto on December 8, 2018 at Scotiabank Arena. https://t.co/ji1TEnOZ15 #UFC pic.twitter.com/wI5gJ9TVy7
— SportsCentre (@SportsCentre) July 7, 2018
The UFC will return to Toronto in December, UFC President Dana White announced on TSN’s SportsCentre on Friday.
UFC 231 is set to take place on Dec. 8 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, where UFC 206 was held two years ago.
The promotion has had smashing success in the Toronto MMA market; their first event there was UFC 129 in 2011, which broke the UFC’s attendance record with 55,000 tickets sold and an $11 million live gate revenue. That event was bolstered by a main event featuring Canadian MMA superstar and then-welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, who was the biggest pay-per-view draw the company had at the time.
Their last Toronto card was UFC 206 in 2016, featuring a main event featherweight title fight between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis.
UFC 129 was held at Rogers Centre, home of Major League Baseball’s the Toronto Blue Jays, while UFC 206 took place at the Scotiabank Arena, where UFC 231 will go down in December. The Scotiabank venue has a maximum capacity of 13,000, whereas the Rogers Centre can hold a whopping 53,506 people.
The timing and location of UFC 231 will likely fuel the rampant speculation of a potential St. Pierre vs. Conor McGregor superfight, as the two have been rumored to fight once “The Notorious” returns from his MMA sabbatical. McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh told reporters he expects the Irishman to return by the end of the year, while Dana White told ESPN he hopes his biggest star will be back in the cage by September. McGregor hasn’t competed for the UFC since winning the lightweight belt back in 2016, and fights with GSP, Khabib Nurmagomedov or a trilogy bout with Nate Diaz have all been the center of speculation.
UFC 231 will be the sixth event held in Toronto in the promotion’s history, but no fights have been announced yet by UFC officials.