UFC Confirms Fight Island’s Location, Announces Four Live Events

The UFC finally revealed its plans for its new venue, Fight Island, on Tuesday. The island was confirmed to be Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, and it will host four events in a span of two weeks beginning with UFC 251 on July 11. UFC president Dana White then appeared on ESPN’s First Take and confirmed the pay-per-view card will be headlined by UFC Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns, UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway and Jose Aldo vs. Petr Yan for the vacant UFC Bantamweight Championship.

Check out UFC’s announcement video below.

White first floated out the idea of hosting events on a private island back in April when the coronavirus pandemic forced the company to cancel five live events.

“I am a day or two away from securing a private island,” White claimed in a TMZ interview. “I have a private island that I’ve secured; we’re getting the infrastructure put in now, so I’m gonna start doing the international fights, too. With international fighters, because I won’t be able to get international fighters into the U.S., I have a private island that I’m gonna start flying them all in and doing international fights from there.”

At the time he said events would be back by April 18, but in reality the promotion wasn’t able to start hosting fights until UFC 249 on May 9.

The announcement comes mere days after Conor McGregor claimed he was retired from mixed martial arts (for the third time).

Hey guys I’ve decided to retire from fighting. Thank you all for the amazing memories! What a ride it’s been! Here is a picture of myself and my mother in Las Vegas post one of my World title wins! Pick the home of your dreams Mags I love you! Whatever you desire it’s yours,” he wrote on Twitter on Saturday night.

He then elaborated in an interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.

“The game just does not excite me, and that’s that,” McGregor said. “All this waiting around. There’s nothing happening. I’m going through opponent options, and there’s nothing really there at the minute. There’s nothing that’s exciting me.

“They should have just kept the ball rolling. I mean, why are they pushing [Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje] back to September? You know what’s going to happen in September, something else is going to happen in September, and that’s not going to happen. I laid out a plan and a method that was the right move, the right methods to go with. And they always want to balk at that and not make it happen or just drag it on. Whatever I say, they want to go against it to show some kind of power. They should have just done the fight — me and Justin for the interim title — and just kept the ball rolling.”