Saudi Arabia is looking to become a staple in combat sports.
The Middle Eastern country has already made a footprint in boxing, holding events headlined by the likes of Tyson Fury, Francis Ngannou, and Jake Paul. Recently striking a deal with Professional Fighters League (PFL) and bringing a big mixed martial arts (MMA) event to Saudi Arabia earlier this year (February 2024), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) also wound up signing a deal and will debut in the country next month (Sat., June 22, 2024).
However, the inaugural event was supposed to happen sooner until it was reportedly not up to par in the eyes of the General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh. UFC CEO, Dana White, quickly denied the report’s reasoning for the change. Ultimately, event No. 1 will be just the beginning of something much more spectacular, promises the country representative.
“It is good,” Alalshikh said on The MMA Hour. “We want more. In the last time, I saw Dana in New York, we discussed and finished a deal with a big card at the end of this year or the beginning of ‘25 in Riyadh. Two or three times bigger than this card.
“Also, this is an important thing to explain to the people, there will be a huge UFC card in September in Vegas in The Sphere presented by Riyadh Season,” he concluded. “It will be an amazing card.
According to Alalshikh, the sequel event in Saudi Arabia will most likely be a pay-per-view (PPV). To kick things off, the upcoming show has a solid main card featuring fights like Robert Whittaker vs. Khamzat Chimaev, Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alexander Volkov, Johnny Walker vs. Volkan Oezdemir, and Kelvin Gastelum vs. Daniel Rodriguez.
Who knows? Down the line, we might even see some of the biggest stars the promotion has to offer.
“Why not?” Alalshikh responded when asked if Conor McGregor could fight at a UFC event in the country. “The card in June, it was the beginning of the relationship, and after that, we reached some point and in the future, it would be a long relationship. Similar to what we have with WWE. We are around seven years with WWE, and we have more years. UFC now, and Dana, will have a lot of business together [with us].”