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The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Macau for the first time in 10 years on November 23

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Macau for the first time in 10 years on November 23

The Ultimate Fighting Championship will return to Macau for the first time in ten years with a Fight Night event on November 23, the mixed martial arts promoter announced on Thursday.

The UFC last held an event in Macau in August 2014. The event in November will be its fourth in the Chinese special administrative region.

“We are thrilled to be back in this incredible city,” said Kevin Chang, UFC Senior Vice President and Head of Asia.

The event, called UFC Fight Night Macau, will take place at Galaxy Arena, Macau's largest indoor stadium with a seating capacity of 16,000. Macau is the entertainment center of China's Greater Bay Area.

“We welcome the return of the UFC to Macau after 10 years,” said Kevin Kelley, chief operating officer for Macau at Galaxy Entertainment Group. He said the event was a “prestigious addition” to the venue's portfolio of international sporting events, which also included the men's and women's table tennis world championships and the women's volleyball Nations League.

The growing popularity of the UFC has produced the sport's first Chinese champion, Zhang Weili (right, fighting fellow countryman Yan Xiaonan). Photo: AFP

UFC, which has also held events in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, opened an MMA training center in Shanghai in June 2019.

Since then, the sport's popularity in China has grown significantly and the country has produced several elite fighters and rising stars, including undisputed UFC women's strawweight champion Zhang Weili.

Other top MMA stars include top-ranked challengers Song Yadong, Yan Xiaonan and Sumudaerji, as well as Zhang Mingyang and Wang Cong, highly regarded young talents from the Road to UFC tournament.

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