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Per Combate’s report, the mysterious UFC Fight Island finally has a known location.
It seems the UFC’s Fight Island is no longer a mysterious place. According to Combate’s Marcelo Russio, the location set to host foreign UFC cards amidst the coronavirus pandemic starting on June 27 is Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.
BREAKING: Abu Dhabi hosts the Fight Island. By @raphamarinho and @marbarone.https://t.co/Zm6uLp84aB
— Marcelo Russio (@MarceloRussio) June 6, 2020
Per Combate, Abu Dhabi has fewer restrictions pertaining to international flights, with passengers not being obligated to enter a 14-day period of self-isolation. Their policies will only recommend that people go into self-quarantine until the COVID-19 test result comes back.
Although the story does not specify where in Abu Dhabi the island is, one possibility would be Yas Island, where the UFC has hosted three events before. The most recent one, UFC 242, happened on September 2019, when Khabib Nurmagomedov defended the lightweight title against Dustin Poirier.
Back in April 2010, Yas Island also hosted UFC 112, where Anderson Silva defended the middleweight title against Demian Maia. On the night’s co-main event, Frankie Edgar also bested B.J. Penn to become the new UFC lightweight champion at the time.
Should Yas Island become confirmed as Fight Island, the most likely venue for the next UFC cards would be du Arena, an open-air arena with a 25,000 people capacity. Back in April 2014, at UFC Fight Night 39’s main event, Roy Nelson knocked out Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at the arena.
As of the writing of this piece, the United Arab Emirates has 37,642 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 274 official deaths.