Will June 17 event in Singapore finally see the UFC make it big in Asia?
Ultimate Fighting Championship senior vice-president, head of international and content Joe Carr announces organisation’s return to Asia at Singapore Indoor Stadium
Joe Carr brought an air of quiet confidence with him as he took the podium in Singapore last week. And well the man might.
As the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) senior vice-president, head of international and content, Carr was in town to both announce his organisation’s return to Asia – with a fight card set down for the Singapore Indoor Stadium on June 17 – and to run through their strategy for the region as they continue to chart the growth of the sport it champions.
Along with the Singapore event, Carr revealed a card was in place for Tokyo later in the year – at a date still to be decided – while Australia and New Zealand were also in the mix, as well as one more as-yet undetermined date somewhere in Asia.
The Las Vegas-based UFC now lays claim to 93 million fans in Asia, part of an estimated global TV audience of 1.1 billion across 152 countries.
“We’ll probably never beat football,” said Carr. “But we think we can become the second most popular sport in the world.”
In a frank and revealing discussion with the Post, Carr readily admitted the UFC had made a few missteps in their past dealings with Asia.