UFC announces cards scheduled for Scotland, Netherlands, and Poland
UFC announces cards scheduled for Scotland, Netherlands, and Poland
London, UK – UFC® today announced three additional unmissable events, set to take place in Europe in 2017.
The organisation will return to Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday, July 16 and Rotterdam in The Netherlands on Saturday, September 2. It will also host its very first live event in the Polish city of Gdańsk on Saturday, October 21.
The scheduled events complete the UFC’s European calendar for 2017, bringing the total number of live events set to be hosted in the region this year to five.
Following a sell-out debut event in Glasgow in July 2015, which saw Britain’s Michael Bisping secure a hard fought decision win in the main event over Brazilian Thales Leites, UFC made no secret of its intention to return to the Scottish capital, and deliver another evening of unforgettable mixed martial arts action for fans. The SSE Arena will, once again, play host to the organisation on July 16.
UFC will also respond to overwhelming demand from fight fans in the Netherlands by delivering an action packed card at the Rotterdam Ahoy in September. Just weeks ago, Dutch fans celebrated their first ever UFC female world champion, as Germaine de Randamie made history by becoming the UFC’s inaugural women’s featherweight champion. Joining de Randamie on the UFC roster is a strong contingent of Dutch fighters including No. 5 ranked middleweight Gegard Mousasi and top 10 heavyweights Alistair Overeem and Stefan Struve, all of whom will undoubtedly be hoping to feature on the highly anticipated fight card in their home country.
UFC will round off its 2017 EMEA events calendar with a trip to the Ergo Arena in Gdańsk on October 21. UFC’s last visit to Poland was in April 2015, an event which was headlined by a rematch between two legendary heavyweights, Mirko Cro Cop and Gabriel Gonzaga. Since then, Polish fans have witnessed their UFC world strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, defend her title no less than four times. Elsewhere, the pool of Polish talent competing within the UFC continues to go from strength to strength and now includes former title challenger and No.2 ranked women’s strawweight Karolina Kowalkiewicz and top 15 heavyweight Daniel Omielanczuk.
Joe Carr, Senior Vice President, UFC International and Content said: “Europe remains an incredibly important market for our business and has been key to the international growth we’ve seen in recent years. It was only right that we committed to delivering these three events in the region in 2017.
“Our debut events in Glasgow and Rotterdam not only sold out, but were among the most successful that we held in 2015 and 2016 respectively, so the decision to return to those cities was an easy one for us. Returning to Poland made complete sense when you consider the fan following we have and level of talent our roster of athletes continues to showcase.
“We now have four European champions and when you add to that the exponential growth in this market, it’s exciting to consider what the future of European MMA will look like.”
