Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
The Octagon could be heading to Central Asia very soon.
The UFC is always looking to explore new markets and hold shows in cities and countries they’ve previously never been to, and this year is no exception.
MMA Fighting reports that the promotion is angling for a June 13th Fight Night card in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. No venue or city has been named, although Titan FC ran a card in the city of Almaty back in December 2018, with 11,000 packing the Almaty Arena.
If the event is finalized, it would be the first ever UFC card held in central Asia.
Welterweight Shavkat Rakhmonov, who is slated to make his Octagon debut against Bartosz Fabi?ski at UFC London in March, is the only fighter of Kazakh descent on the UFC roster. Should he prevail and come away relatively unscathed, it’s reasonable to think he could fight in his home country next.
There’s no word on if IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin, Kazakhstan’s most famous combat sports athlete, is looking to make a transition from boxing to MMA. (This is not a serious sentence… I think?)