The UFC's Fight Island is real and will make its grand debut next month. UFC president Dana White has talked about this mysterious island, which has been designed to host international fights for the UFC, in the past; but, until today he has been tight-lipped with details.
For starters, we now it is located on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The UFC and the Department of Culture and Tourism - Aubu Dhabi have worked together to accomodate current existing public health guidelines that are in place due to the coronavirus. DCT Abu Dhabi created a nearly ten square mile safety zone on Yas Island that will include an arena, hotel, private training facilities and dining establishments. The safety zone will only be open to UFC athletes and their coaches; UFC staff and other event personnel; and Yas Island employees necessary to maintain facility operations.
Fight Island will host four UFC events beginning with UFC 251 on Saturday, July 11. It will then be followed by three Fight Night events to be held on Wednesday, July 15; Saturday, July 18; and Saturday, July 25.
UFC 251 will be headlined by a welterweight title bout between champion Kamaru Usman and No. 1-ranked GIlbert Burns. The card will also feature a featherweight title rematch between Alex Volkanovski and Max Holloway. Petr Yan will fight Jose Aldo for the vacant bantamweight championship. The Fight Night lineups have not yet been finalized.
"We're literally just going to Yas Island right now to pull off these fights, because the hardest thing to do right now is to get people into the country from other parts of the world," White said on ESPN's First Take. "And we are a true global business; we're the only ones that are pulling off live sports right now. And if I continue to do fights in the United States, I'm gonna burn out all my American talent. So now we've got Yas Island ready to go; it's set up."
The UFC and DCT Abu Dhabi entered a five-year partnership in 2019. THe first UFC event in the emirate was UFC 242: Khabib vs. Poirier, which attracted more than 14,000 fans to Yas Island last September.