UFC Africa on for 2022
UFC president Dana White has given African fans and fighters a splash of joy.
Following a successful UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Florida, where Nigeria-born Kamaru Usman defended his welterweight title in fine style by knocking out Jorge Masvidal in the second round of the main event, the Ultimate Fighting Championship boss confirmed that the billion-dollar mixed martial arts machine plans on making its way to Africa next year.
When asked if UFC Africa is a strong possibility now, the UFC president responded: “22 (2022), yeah,” during the UFC 261 post-fight press conference.
Calls for a first UFC Africa event have increased over time and fighters from different countries have shown their support.
With the UFC having three African champions – Nigeria-born Israel Adesanya (middleweight), Cameroon’s Francis Ngannou (heavyweight) and Usman, it is only a matter of time before UFC Africa takes place.
Asked later if he will have all the African champions on the first UFC Africa card, White replied: “We will see, you know how quick this landscape changes in a year, we will see where we are in 2022 – when we plan on going there – and who’s wearing (the belts) and what’s going on.”
The continent is home to some of the finest promotions and the Extreme Fighting Championship based in South Africa has proved for more than a decade that Africa is capable of hosting high-quality professional mixed martial art circuits.
They have also produced some of the world’s biggest MMA athletes including current UFC stars Dricus du Plessis, JP Buys and Don Madge SA, and Dalcha Lungiambula (Democratic Republic of Congo).
From an SA point of view, there should not be any infrastructure issues looking back at the country’s track record, hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup, 2003 Cricket World Cup, and the 1995 Rugby World Cup, to name but a few.
“The amount of raw talent that is possibly over there (in Africa) ... and if you look at what we did all over the world, in places that we’ve gone, whether it’s Europe or Australia, Canada … when we put on live events in these places, it ignites,” White said.
“Training facilities start opening up, people start training, and I think you are going to see some bad dudes coming out of Africa in the next five to 10 years.”