India? China? Dana White says plenty of ‘interesting places’ UFC haven’t gone to yet

The UFC is always looking to expand its reach and hold events in cities around the world that they are yet to venture to.

Of course, given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it doesn’t look like the UFC will be traveling anywhere at all for the time being with the exception of Abu Dhabi — where UFC 254 takes place — and Las Vegas.

But with initial plans for a Fight Night in Kazakhstan before the pandemic as well as first-time visits to Busan, Shenzhen, Prague, Copenhagen, Montevideo and Saint Petersburg last year, one can expect the UFC to continue globe trotting when things go back to normal.

But which place would UFC president Dana White consider the holy grail of places the UFC is yet to visit to?

“Let me think. Obviously, you start looking at places with massive populations like India and there are still places in China that we haven’t held an event yet. And we have a Chinese world champion [Weili Zhang],” White told ESPN.

The UFC certainly has options elsewhere as well as the champions to promote it given the diversity of the current title-holders in the promotion.

Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, for example, hail from Nigeria and would be fitting headliners for a first-ever card in the continent of Africa.

All in all, there are many “interesting places” according to White.

“One of the things when you run this business — right now, we have a champ from New Zealand, we have a champ from Australia, we have a champ from Russia, China, Kamaru Usman is from Africa,” White added. “So we have a lot of interesting places where we can put fights on.”

For now, we have to stay happy with Fight Island and the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.