Dana White confirms plans to build Performance Institute in Africa
UFC president Dana White confirmed his plans to build a Performance Institute in Africa, suggesting some “bad dudes” will come out of it.
The UFC has a P.I. at its headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada and there is another one in Shangai, China, but White has often spoken about his desire to break ground in other countries and build more Performance Institutes around the world. In the past, places such as Mexico and Puerto Rico were linked as potential locations for the new buildings, but it now appears that White is focused on another place, and it’s a big one as he’s looking at an entire continent this time.
Speaking to BroBible, White confirmed his plans to build a P.I. somewhere in Africa. The UFC president believes there is some amazing talent to be unearthed and he is hoping to find the next Francis Ngannou or Kamaru Usman — or someone potentially even better than them one day.
“Yeah, we always believed that this would be big globally, that we could create talent from all over the world. But, you know what makes sense? Africa is finally catching up and coming in. I’m going to build a PI over there. Anytime you find a place where people grow up in hard times you are going to find talented, incredible not just fighters but athletes of all kinds. The question is, what resources do they have to train, to learn, and things like that? I’m going to build a PI over there and I’ll tell you what, you’re going to see some bad dudes coming out of Africa over the next five, six years,” White said (h/t Cole Shelton of MMANews).
In addition to building a PI in Africa, White could also potentially hold events on the continent, and fighters such as the Nigerian-born Usman have stumped for it in the past. With the building of the PI there, the odds of a UFC Africa event are much higher.
How much of an impact do you think the UFC building a Performance Institute in Africa will have on the fighters there?
