{"id":332400,"date":"2019-11-18T07:43:51","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T15:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=332400"},"modified":"2019-11-18T07:43:51","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T15:43:51","slug":"ufc-announces-2020-return-to-auckland-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/ufc-announces-2020-return-to-auckland-new-zealand\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC announces 2020 return to Auckland, New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The UFC is set to return to Auckland, New Zealand in the New Year. This UFC Auckland card was announced by the promotion on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UFC_AUSNZ\/status\/1196208685070135296\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/UFC_AUSNZ\/status\/1196208685070135296<\/p>\n<p>The home turf of Dan Hooker and Israel Adesanya and the birthplace of former UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker, Auckland is set to host the Octagon on February 23.<\/p>\n<p>At this stage, all signs point to Hooker headlining the UFC Auckland event. In his last fight at UFC 243, he defeated Al Iaquinta via decision. He does not currently have a fight scheduled.<\/p>\n<p>It is unlikely Whittaker will be fighting on this card, as the former champion is rumoured to be fighting <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/robert-whittaker-agrees-to-fight-darren-till-in-london\/\">rising middleweight contender Darren Till in the UK<\/a>. Adesanya, meanwhile, is rumoured to be fighting <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/israel-adesanya-talks-matchup-with-boogeyman-of-185lbs-yoel-romero-and-sends-a-message-to-jon-jones\/\">Yoel Romero but nothing has been finalized yet<\/a>. Flyweight fighter and New Zealand native Kai Kara-France is also already locked into a fight, as he&#8217;ll be taking on Brandon Moreno at UFC 245 in December.<\/p>\n<p>The UFC last held an event in New Zealand in 2017. The card was headlined by a heavyweight battle between Mark Hunt and Derrick Lewis. Over 8600 fans were in attendance and watched the Kiwi heavyweight knock out Lewis in round four.<\/p>\n<p>The upcoming UFC Auckland event will likely host a variety of Australian talent. Australian fighter Daniel Kelly fought Derek Brunson on the main card of the promotion&#8217;s last visit to the country, losing via first-round KO. He hasn&#8217;t fought since a 2018 loss against Tom Breese which brought his losing streak to three straight. If the 42-year-old ends up fighting on the card, it will likely be his last fight, as he has been teasing retirement for some time.<\/p>\n<p>Australian featherweight Megan Anderson could also end up competing on this card. She&#8217;s riding high on a big submission win over Zarah Fairn Dos Santos.<\/p>\n<p id=\"MNILs0\">Who would you like to see compete on this newly announced UFC Auckland card?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 11\/18\/2019.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UFC is set to return to Auckland, New Zealand in the New Year. This UFC Auckland card was announced by the promotion on Twitter. https:\/\/twitter.com\/UFC_AUSNZ\/status\/1196208685070135296 The home turf of Dan Hooker and Israel Adesanya and the birthplace of former UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker, Auckland is set to host the Octagon on February 23. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54472,"featured_media":280815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[28687,39610,28615],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UFC announces 2020 return to Auckland, New Zealand | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The UFC is set to return to New Zealand on February 23rd, 2020 for the first time in three years at UFC Fight Night in Auckland.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/ufc-announces-2020-return-to-auckland-new-zealand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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