Report: UFC heading back to Fight Island for five events through September and October
After a successful summer run, the UFC is reportedly heading back to their Fight Island for a five-event run starting late September. According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, the UFC is returning to Abu Dhabi beginning with UFC 253 and will go all the way through UFC 254 which is scheduled to take place in October.
The stretch of events will start on September 26 and will see five straight weeks of UFC events which will also see multiple title fights in their return to Fight Island. Starting with UFC 253, the UFC will have two title fights on the night with a middleweight title fight between champion Israel Adesanya and challenger Paulo Costa as well as a vacant light heavyweight title fight between contenders Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz.
There will be three UFC Fight Night events and two PPV events (UFC 253 and 254) throughout the next stretch of Fight Island events, the featured fights are as follows.
- UFC 253 (September 26) – Israel Adesanya vs Paulo Costa (middleweight title), Dominick Reyes vs Jan Blachowicz (light heavyweight title)
- UFC Fight Night: Holm vs Aldana (October 3) – Holly Holm vs Irene Aldana (bantamweight), Thiago Santos vs Glover Teixeira (light heavyweight)
- UFC Fight Night: Moraes vs Sandhagen (October 10) – Marlon Moraes vs Cory Sandhagen (bantamweight)
- UFC Fight Night: Ortega vs Korean Zombie (October 17) – Brian Ortega vs Korean Zombie (featherweight), Katlyn Chookagian vs Jessica Andrade (flyweight)
- UFC 254: (October 24) – Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Justin Gaethje (lightweight title), Robert Whittaker vs Jared Cannonier (middleweight)
The last time the UFC was in Abu Dhabi for a Fight Island event was UFC 251 back in July, where welterweight champion Kamaru Usman defended his title against Jorge Masvidal. There were plenty of memorable moments from the first stretch of events, some of which were previously detailed.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, any and all fighters scheduled to compete on Fight Island will travel to Vegas where they are tested for COVID-19, then they will quarantine before traveling, and be tested upon arrival to Abu Dhabi, if they pass all tests, they are cleared to compete.
