Ireland will not be the first European country to host a UFC major stadium event. The world’s largest MMA promotion announced they will be putting on a Fight Night event in Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena on January 24 next year.
The event will be headlined by a light-heavyweight title eliminator bout between Swedish UFC superstar Alex Gustafsson and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson.
The bout will take place in front of 30,000 fight fans in the Tele2 Arena, making it the first UFC stadium event to be held in Europe and only the second stadium event in the history of the promotion. The first took place in Toronto’s Rogers Center in 2011 where 55,000 spectators witnessed Georges St-Pierre defeat Jake Shields.
It was thought that Conor McGregor would bring a stadium event to Ireland first, with the UFC hinting that the Notorious might take on Jose Aldo in either the Aviva or Croke Park next summer. However, it looks like Ireland will only be the second European country to achieve the feat.
Gustafsson will be looking to get another crack at pound-for-pound champ Jon Jones, after he gave the champ his toughest ever test at UFC 165 last year. The Swede battled the undisputed champion over five tough rounds and narrowly lost out on the judges scorecards.
Hat-tip to UFC
