Outside of its pay-per-view schedule, the Ultimate Fighting
Championship has been content to hold events at its home base of
the UFC Apex the past two years.
That’s due in large part to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,
which has made traveling throughout the year a far more difficult
task. The Las Vegas-based promotion returned to London on Saturday
for the first time since before the pandemic, and the
UFC Fight Night 204 card delivered in a big way.
All told, the event set gate records for the O2 Arena and for a UFC
Fight Night card. The fighters performed as well and were rewarded
for their efforts: All nine who scored finishes received $50,000
bonuses at the end of the night. As it stands, UFC Fight Night 204
is an early frontrunner for “Event of the Year.”
“It seriously could not go any better. It was f—-ing unbelievable,”
UFC president Dana White said at Saturday’s post-fight press
conference. “Everybody’s been locked up for two and a half years.
So many kids have been fighting in the Apex with no fans and to
come in tonight in their home country and deliver the way that they
did was a big night.”
The card was such a success that White has vowed to rearrange the
UFC’s schedule to return to the U.K. before the conclusion of
2022.
“Tonight re-energized me and reminded me what it’s like to do
fights over in the U.K. We’re coming back this year, I don’t give a
s—t what the schedule is,” White said. “We’re gonna be moving s—t
around when we get home.
“The way I look at it, you do half the kids that won, you come back
here and do a card with them and somebody else and you take the
other half of the kids to Abu Dhabi in October.”
White also revealed that he had hoped to book a pay-per-view card
in London headlined by a welterweight title tilt between Kamaru
Usman and Leon
Edwards, but the champ is still in the process of recovering
from an injury suffered in his last defense at UFC 268.
“So the only thing that would’ve made tonight better would’ve been
if Usman and Leon were the main event and [Tom] Aspinall was the
co-main event,” White said. “I wanted this card tonight to be a
title fight. I was gonna move things around and make it happen but
Usman’s hand wasn’t ready.
“I’m gonna have a pay-per-view here. I will bring a title
fight.”
When it comes to the subject of holding more UFC events outside of
Las Vegas, White will only go to venues that allow him to hold a
card that fits his parameters. Without revealing specifics, he
admitted that UFC London almost didn’t happen.
“We tried this and it worked out. We had some problems, I was
considering pulling out of her two weeks ago,” White said. “I was
gonna refund everyone’s tickets and go to Abu Dhabi. I’m just not
gonna play games. I’m gonna go to places where I can run my
business and do what I want to do.
“But I can tell you this, we will definitely gonna do France this
year and I will definitely come back here again. This worked out.
This was fun for us to come here and do this event. It was a little
wobbly a couple weeks ago but we got it fixed…Very happy in every
sense of the world and i’m gonna come back as soon as
possible.”