The Ultimate Fighting Championship is planning to make its debut in Kazakhstan this summer with a Fight Night event in June.
As reported by MMA Fighting, the aim is for the promotion to put on a card on June 13 in the Central Asian nation. At this moment in time it’s not yet known as to where exactly the event will be held. The frontrunner is said to be Nur-Sultan, formerly called Astana, which is home to the 30,000-seater Astana Arena.
Another possible option could potentially be Almaty, located nearly 800 miles south of Nur-Sultan, with the Almaty Arena being able to hold around 12,000 fans.
UFC targets Kazakhstan for June 13 event (@MMAFightingSM) https://t.co/mXnOvqmWZY pic.twitter.com/k0IN8GqxlM
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One of the things that the UFC really seems to have focused on across the last few years is spreading its reach to every corner of the globe. While there are certain countries outside of the United States that they visit on a fairly regular basis such as England, Canada, Brazil and Australia to name a few, they’re always aiming to take things to the next level.
At this moment in time there is only one fighter from Kazakhstan on the UFC roster and he was only signed back in August. Shavkat Rakhmonov is set to make his promotional debut next month at UFC London, and if he comes out of that bout against Bartosz Fabiński unscathed, he could be heading for a prominent spot on the card in June.
The UFC has already announced that they’ll be heading back to Brazil, Australia, England and Ireland in the next few months but with the Q2 schedule starting to look fairly concrete, we may not see another ‘new’ nation aside from Kazakhstan being in the mix until at least Q3.
There’s a lot of talk about the UFC’s inevitable debut in France, but with the official details behind mixed martial arts being legalized over there, the highly anticipated card that’ll likely take place in Paris could well be delayed.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 2/25/2020.