SINGAPORE – UFC Senior Vice President Dave Shaw has provided an update on the promotion’s international plans.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the UFC is yet to return to Canada, New Zealand and Australia, where they’ve held numerous shows throughout the years.
Laws and restrictions have made it difficult for the octagon to return to those countries, but Shaw says it’s also a matter of a conflict of scheduling and finding the available slots for the UFC to host events.
“We are actively trying to get back to regions and countries like Canada, New Zealand, Australia,” Shaw told MMA Junkie. “Countries we haven’t been to in a while that are very important markets for us, not only in terms of the partnerships that we’ve got, the content relationships that we’ve got, but also the number of athletes, and of course as you mentioned, some of the champions that we have.
“Here’s what’s happening the world right now as COVID sort of eases a little bit and countries are opening up, is you’ve got this massive push towards live events. You’ve got concerts, you’ve got exhibitions, you’ve got sporting events, and we’re no different. So the challenge for us is actually trying to find venues that are available when we need them to be available.”
Canada has played host to some blockbuster pay-per-view events headlined by UFC Hall of Famer and former dual-champ Georges St-Pierre. Shaw said when the UFC return to Canada, it’ll be for another big show.
“We want to get back first and foremost with a pay-per-view to Canada,” Shaw said. “I don’t believe that July and August are the best times to come, it’s also really difficult to come in March, April, May when hockey playoffs are at sort of their fever pitch. So for us, we’ve got a few kind of key dates for pay-per-views in other regions around the world.
“October historically we’ve been in Vegas, December we’ve been in Vegas, November we’ve been in New York, so trying to fit in a PPV in Canada or Australia, there’s only so many times throughout the course of the year that we can actually get there and then you run into the problems that I just mentioned with availability. So we’re actively trying, we’re trying to get there as soon as possible.”
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