Time is ripe as UFC comes to China for the first time with all guns blazing
The organisation has been taking the world by storm and finally hits the mainland with a sold-out 12-bout fightcard in Shanghai on Saturday
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has arrived for its debut event in mainland China as the nation takes the sport to its heart and the sport looks to cast off a reputation that has sometimes been shady.
“It’s a milestone for the organisation,” Kevin Chang, vice-president UFC Asia Pacific said on Wednesday.
It’s also been a long time coming, considering the UFC was launched in 1993 and in the years since it has staged more than 400 events and taken its show on the road to 18 countries outside its base in Las Vegas. The UFC has estimated its pay-per-views are watched by between 30 to 40 million people globally, while its worth has skyrocketed from the US$2 million paid for the fledgling sports promotion company by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and their business partner Dana White in 2001 to its sale – for an estimated US$4 billion – to the WME-IMG group last year.
Along the way, the UFC has launched the international careers of such global superstars as Irishman Conor McGregor and America’s Ronda Rousey, whose popularity in the sport has helped them crossover into the mainstream and collect untold millions along the way.