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UFC President Dana White divulged some details regarding the forthcoming UFC 252 card.
Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier’s trilogy fight has an official time and place (per MMA Fighting). According to UFC President Dana White, the heavyweight clash will headline UFC 252 on August 15th. White also confirmed that this event would take place at the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas, NV.
White confirmed these details during his post-fight press conference at UFC on ESPN: Blaydes vs. Volkov, which was also held at the APEX. Prior to this confirmation, there had been chatter that the heavyweight title fight might be reserved for an arena where fans could be in attendance.
Some jurisdictions in the United States are currently relaxing restrictions on public gatherings, dispute the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has killed over 115,000 Americans.
White told reporters that, despite the relaxations, he didn’t think there would be a UFC show in a sold out US arena for quite some time.
“I just don’t see that happening any time soon in the United States. I could see it happening in another country. Not here though. Again, you can’t f**king believe anything you read. You don’t know what’s true and what’s not true. You’re hearing flatten the curve and the curve had flattened. Now they’re saying things are spiking up in Texas and Arizona and Florida and all these other [places]. I don’t know the answers to this stuff. It’s why I just stay in my lane. We’ve got the APEX. We’ve got ‘Fight Island’ we’re kicking off here soon. I am not even thinking about doing an event with fans.”
UFC APEX houses a 25-foot cage. MMA Fighting reports that a source close to Miocic has stated that the champion would rather compete in a more familiar 30-foot cage.
It is unclear whether the APEX is able to house a larger cage, given that the lighting rig installed at the facility was designed specifically for the 25-foot Octagon.
The last time Miocic was in any UFC Octagon was August 17, 2019. That’s when he bested Cormier by fourth round TKO to reclaim the UFC heavyweight belt. Miocic had lost the belt to Cormier at UFC 226 three months earlier. In that first meeting Cormier beat Miocic by first round KO.
At this time of writing, no other fights have been announced for UFC 252.