After being on the radar screen for a while, and talked about more prominently over the last several months, China will finally get its first UFC event.
The UFC on Nov. 10 will head to Macau for UFC on FUEL TV 6. The news was announced Tuesday night on "UFC Tonight" on FUEL TV.
No fights have yet been named for the event, but the main card will air on FUEL TV and prelims, as with past FUEL events, are likely to stream on Facebook.
Macau, with a population of around 550,000, is similar to Hong Kong in that it operates as a special administrative region of China, which has an overall population of more than 1.3 billion.
The event will take place at The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel, a 40-story property that opened in 2007 with a $2.4 billion price tag. The property, which is modeled after The Venetian hotel-resort in Las Vegas, features the world's largest casino and is one of Macau's most popular tourism destinations. The resort also is home to CotaiArena (previously Venetian Arena), a 15,000-seat indoor arena that in the past has hosted boxing events.
Nearly two years ago, the UFC announced a dedicated Asian operations branch with Mark Fischer as the executive vice president and managing director, the first step in a push toward bringing an event to China.
The event will be the UFC's second in Asia this year. In February, the promotion held UFC 144 in Japan at the Saitama Super Arena just north of Tokyo.
"It's a major step in the development if the UFC brand in China and across Asia, for that matter," Fischer said. "Ticket and fight card details are yet to come. We'll be announcing that at a later date, so stay tuned."
"Breaking into a market with a population of over 1.3 billion is both a testament to the growth of our sport and a long-term challenge we are excited to undertake," UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta stated. "This is just the first of many world-class fights we plan to hold over the coming years in China, one of the birthplaces of martial arts."
Earlier this year, UFC president Dana White said he expected an event in China to happen in 2012, and that will be the case.
"Very soon," White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) in March. "It will happen this year. We're this close. We are going to do a fight in China."
Tuesday night, following the announcement on FUEL TV, White said on Twitter: "We finally got China done!"
Source: UFC will make first visit to China for UFC on FUEL TV 6 on Nov. 10