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No word about the UFC’s Contender Series Asia plans, but the US version is still on schedule for late summer this year.
Back in 2019, the UFC announced that they’d be rolling into 2020 with Contender Series Asia, taking place at the newly constructed Performance Institute in Shanghai, China. And while it seems pretty safe to say that those plans are no longer in the promotion’s immediate future this year, the UFC will is still set for their August-September run of the American version of their talent scouting fight night series.
While MMA Junkie reports that the series was original planned to kickoff on June 23rd, as early as late March the outlet reported the adjusted season opener as August 4th. And while a whole lot has changed for the promotion in the nearly three months since – including multiple event cancellations, and a whole new host of COVID-19 pandemic protocols – it seems that things are still on track for that late-summer start date.
The current plan has events scheduled for August 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th. As well as September 1st and 8th. No word yet as to whether the promotion will go ahead with their normal run of 10 events into early October, or stick with a contracted schedule of just six shows.
One reason the UFC may consider keeping to a shorter schedule than normal for the Contenders Series is that they’ve already been using at least a couple of the fighters they had set to appear on the show. Anthony Ivy and Brandon Royval were both originally reported as competitors for season 4. And with many fighters still experiencing potential training & travel restricitions, or more serious health concerns amid the pandemic, the UFC has had to pick up late replacements at a blistering pace over the last several weeks. That could mean there just won’t be that many top prospects left to fill out a whole ten episodes.