After the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced plans to organize an event on the African continent, its president, Dana White, identified Nigeria as a potential destination to host the event in 2023. “We are talking seriously about Africa with my team. We are looking for rooms and cities there. UFC Africa is coming very soon,” White confirmed in September. When journalists asked about where in Africa the UFC promotion was targeting, White said, “Nigeria is what we’re thinking”. Nigeria is home to UFC stars including Sodiq Yusuff, Usman Kamaru, Kennedy Nzechukwu and Israel Adesanya who lost a fight against Brazil’s Alex Pereira during the UFC 281 fight held Saturday, November 12, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, United States. But a Nigerian journalist claimed that “there are no facilities that will be able to house the UFC” in Nigeria, suggesting that White considers Rwanda as Africa’s second alternative for the UFC promotion. “They have Kigali Arena; the NBA has played there with their basketball multiple times,” the journalist told White who, in response, said: “Yeah, thank you...thank you.” Kigali could become a new destination for the mixed martial arts (MMA) events, mainly UFC Africa, a development that comes a year after Cameroon’s UFC icon Francis Ngannou unveiled plans to introduce mixed martial arts in Rwanda. Talks of UFC Africa were in motion for months, with a timeframe set for late 2023, the earliest. It’s uncertain if the UFC would hold a ‘Fight Night’ event or a pay-per-view for its planned Africa debut. As the Covid-19 pandemic wanes, White and the UFC are back to holding events outside of the United States. And UFC Africa seems closer than ever before.
