Breaking | Ultimate Fighting Championship to make its debut in mainland China as November date is announced

Leading MMA organisation says it is ‘excited’ to finally bring a show to the mainland with Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena set to host fight night

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UFC will be coming to mainland China for the first time in November. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:46am, 30 Jul 2017Updated: 11:30pm, 30 Jul 2017

The smoke hasn’t yet cleared from Sunday’s UFC 214 in Anaheim, California but the news has been announced that on November 25 at Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena the world’s leading mixed martial arts organisation would finally – after 24 years of action and more than 400 events – be bringing its show to the mainland.

“We are always asked when the UFC will be making its debut in mainland China,” said UFC senior vice-president of international and content, Joe Carr, in a statement announcing the event. “We are honoured to confirm that Shanghai will be the home of the very first live UFC event in mainland China and to say that we are excited is an understatement. The entire organisation is looking forward to making history this year.”

True to previous form, the UFC first announced the event, and now over the next few months they will announce their fight card which will no doubt come boasting a heavy presence of Chinese fighters, with the likes of welterweight Li “The Leech” Jingliang (13-4) and featherweight Wang “The Dongbei Tiger” Guan (19-1-1) surely in the reckoning.

Both fighters were down for bouts at UFC Fight Night Holm vs Correia in Singapore this past June, the 29-year-old Li winning fight of the night honours thanks to his sensational comeback from an early battering to win a unanimous decision over Frank Comacho. No such luck for Wang, forced out through injury pre-event due on the verge of making his debut for the UFC to an injury. But the 30-year-old fighter from Liaoning is wildly regarded as one of his nation’s hottest prospects, as a one-time Ranik Ultimate Fighting Federation (RUFF) organisation featherweight champ.

“It’s true that professional MMA in China still needs time to develop, but no country has followed the same pattern or progressed in the same way,” said the UFC’s vice-president in Asia Kevin Chang.

It’s expected that welterweight Li “The Leech” Jingliang of China will fight at UFC Shanghai. Photo: Getty Images

“Sometimes it takes a bit longer, sometimes it happens very quickly. MMA in China will follow its own course, in a country rich with martial arts history. China has produced some of the best athletes in the world and the new generation of talent will take the lessons from Chinese martial arts to give them an advantage.”

Chinese fight fanatics will now go deep into debate over the nature of the card across the next few months, and there are plenty of those fans across the mainland, with UFC figures suggesting there are an estimated 77 million in China, the majority of which tune in to the UFC.