LONDON – Following the promotion’s return to London for UFC Fight Night 255 on Saturday, executive Dave Shaw spoke to members of the media at The O2.
Shaw, the promotion’s senior vice chairman of international operations, talked about more regular events in Europe, Sean Brady’s win over Leon Edwards, Molly McCann’s retirement and more.
On the London crowd
All in all, nice return to London. You had the successful event in Manchester last 12 months, so it’s nice to get back. It looks like this March date works out very well for our calendar. It’s nice to be back. We had a ton of our European broadcasters that got here in to look at. I assumed the fights were great overall.
On Brady’s performance
It was nice to see a very just dominant performance by Brady. Really interesting – I didn’t think it was going to go that way, and I assume neither did the group. However it was pretty impressive – pretty impressive performance.
Sean Brady, UFC Fight Night 255 London cage exit (via Per Haljestam)
On planning U.K. events
We don’t base it on the fighters. That is like, you already know, calendar set 6 to 9 months out. We’re all the time attempting to be within the UK twice a 12 months. Sometimes it really works out and sometimes it doesn’t. Also driven by the opposite events that we wish to do throughout Europe throughout the Middle East, North Africa. But typically we enter yearly attempting to get to the. UK twice. It’s possible (we’ll be back in 2025).
On Tom Aspinall vs. Jon Jones
What Dana (White) and the matchmakers are all the time doing is just letting fighters be themselves. And so in the event that they need to jump within the narrative and proceed to push it forward, it doesn’t hurt. They’re going to do whatever they need to do. They’re not going to get anyone telling them not to try this style of thing. What do I feel? I feel it’s great. I feel everyone’s really fascinated by seeing this fight. I’m unsure when it’s going to come back together. I feel Dana was dropping some hints that news may very well be coming soon, but by way of timing, nothing to to say right away.
Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall
On Molly McCann’s retirement
She mentioned at the tip in her retirement speech she might need to play a task (in the corporate), and also you have a look at a few of the athletes that we’ve got in numerous areas around the globe (after) their UFC fighting profession and the impact that they make. I mean there’s no higher example than (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira in Brazil. The guy is on the market every week – he’s constructing houses, he’s raising money, he’s doing clinics with underprivileged youth. I feel there’s an actual role for numerous athletes that come and have a successful profession, either on a worldwide basis or an area basis. They need to offer back, they need to use the talents that they’ve got, the profile that they’ve built to make an impact on the community, to assist proceed to construct our brand. Oftentimes, it is available in the shape of teaching. All these athletes have been taught well all their lives, and for them to now give back (is big). So by way of an envoy role, I feel during her profession she couldn’t have done significantly better, but the chance to now springboard into something that’s more meaningful for the remaining of her life, I feel it’s something that we actually need to construct around.
Molly McCann, UFC London retirement gloves off (via UFC)
On potential for prime time events in France
We’ve done a lot of these pay per views either in the course of the night, in certain circumstances. We’ve done them in local prime time. We talked extensively about the restrictions that we’ve got to do pay-per-views in non-traditional broadcast window time for North America. It really works in Australia since it’s a Sunday afternoon event. To do an event in Europe or the Middle East pay-per-view, that is tougher for us. Having said that, we just talked about Manchester. So could we do it? Yes. We haven’t looked at a few of the limitations that we might need from a venue or an ordinance perspective. Sometimes you only can’t get a permit. It is advisable to take into consideration transportation. There’s numerous things that go into with the ability to have an event, a pay-per-view event, in the course of the night. So I feel the predominant card in Manchester last summer was at 3 a.m. So the predominant fight didn’t really walk till 5:30. Are you able to try this in Paris? I’m unsure if we even asked the query. If that’s the case, we would. It’s been big gates, all the time sold out three events in a row with arguably some of the raucous crowds that we’ve got. Manon (Fiorot from France is) competing in Montreal. WE hhope to see Benoit Saint Denis come back in some unspecified time in the future soon. So could you fill (an arena in the course of the night). The vital athletes to sell enough tickets in the course of the night at a pay-per-view average ticket price, I feel you can.
On Europe’s Oktagon promotion and its success
It’s definitely encouraging. We’ve heard lots concerning the RTL (broadcast group in Europe). I feel they broadcast events on RTL. We just renewed our deal in Germany and so they talked lots about growth of the game and citing what Oktagon has been doing, which I feel is great. What does it do for us? Obviously it helps generate a lot of local athletes, and so the pipeline is stronger for athletes in those particular regions. It galvanizes a fan base, helps make broadcast and media values increase and it shows that there’s demand from a ticket sales perspective. So for us, it’s extremely encouraging – not for 2025, but 2026 the following likely window that we consider, and that’s partly to do with the printed situation that we’ve got within the U.S.
On an event in Spain
Here’s the situation with Spain. We’ve got to seek out the fitting destination. We’ve talked about it lots – we’re not going to venues that don’t have a roof. It doesn’t make any sense for athletes, for the product, for the integrity of the product. We wish the playing field to be equal and never have the identical form of weather variables that you simply’d have in football or soccer or golf or whatever else. So difficult for us, if there’s a venue that we are able to go to, then we’ll proceed to have a look at Spain. Having said that, there’s very strong interest on Dana’s front, so we’ve just got to work out where to go.
Ilia Topuria cornering at UFC 312
On Ilia Topuria’s lightweight future
It’s throughout social, right? It’s very busy – (he’s going to be a) latest era, latest persona. I’m unsure what he’s got cooking up, but it surely feels like he’s got something interesting. I don’t know (who he’s going to fight). It’s lower than me. I don’t know the reply to that query. I’m sure they’ve got an extended list of fellows. I’m sure he’s got an extended list of fellows. I feel if he’s got a formula he’s bringing to market and he’s already publicizing pretty, pretty heavily, I’m sure it’s not nearly him. I’m sure it’s concerning the pathway he desires to (be on) – what weight class, what belt, and what he wants to realize on this latest chapter.
On an event in Africa
We’ve got a fairly extensive relationship with the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi and the way in which that we manage our relationship with them is the angle – not only Abu Dhabi. The angle is the region, and the region is Middle East, North Africa. So in working with them, there’s a lot of different countries that we’ve identified as destinations for us over the following few years. We’ve been in Abu Dhabi and we’ve been in Riyadh. But we’ve been excited about Bahrain, we’ve been excited about Qatar, we’ve been excited about Jordan, we’ve been excited about a couple of different countries there – an order of operations to it. So in the case of North Africa specifically, nothing to reveal in the intervening time. But I feel continental Africa for us is basically compelling and we’ve been talking for some time about whether it’s South Africa or Rwanda, or will we go to a French-speaking country. There’s a couple of different options. There’s numerous logistics at play. We’ve got to have the fitting athletes.
On latest markets
It’s an enormous priority. There’s a lot excitement unlocking latest markets and also you don’t get to do it that always. We did a couple of years ago in France and it’s been such a fantastic ride. There’s a couple of other countries that we are attempting to get to this 12 months, and hopefully in the following few weeks we’ve got some announcements. However it’s a very special moment because there’s obviously the pent-up demand. There’s this whole concept of giving back to the fans which have been asking for it for some time. So I feel for us it’s really meaningful, and then you definitely’ve got athletes who invariably are saying, ‘Hey, you’ve got to come back to my country, and here’s how we are able to make it work. We’ve got connections. The federal government there are sponsors that you simply guys can reach out to.’ So the most effective advocates in lots of cases are the athletes. The athletes play a significant role in that. For me personally and for, you already know, the incredible teams that UFC has in seven different offices that we’ve got around the globe, it’s necessary to them, too. It’s something we’re really pushing for, but it surely’s not as easy as attempting to book the O2 or attempting to get back to Paris.
On the brand new old gloves
I feel, Dana (White), Sean (Shelby), Mick (Maynard), Hunter (Campbell), they spoke to numerous different athletes and everybody seems to need to return to the old gloves. In order that’s the plan until it’s not, and there’ll be other gloves. But I feel for now we’re going to proceed to roll with those.
Jan 18, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Jiri Prochazka (red gloves) reacts after a watch poke against Jamahal Hill (not pictured) during UFC 311 at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
On a return to Amsterdam
The 2 events that we’ve had in Rotterdam have been excellent. Amsterdam is all the time tough and difficult since the permit process in Amsterdam is basically onerous. It’s very difficult for us to get a permit, for those who can imagine it. (Netherlands) for us in ’25, likely not a possibility. 2026, we’re confident that as we undergo the U.S. media rights deal and we’ve got a brand new set of terms with either our current partner in ESPN or whoever is fascinated by partnering with us within the U.S. and potentially other countries around the globe, the intention – and we’re being very deliberate about this – is to have an increased variety of prime time events that we are able to have throughout Europe and the Middle East and China, for that matter yearly. There’s limitations on what we are able to do now, and the intention for us is to ensure that that we’ve got a better ceiling on the variety of events, a greater variety of events that we are able to do in prime time. That’s after we’ll have the ability to take into consideration Germany and getting back to Prague and, in fact, Netherlands.
On a return to Poland
I feel we’ve had some pretty successful gates. We’ve had a lot of successful events. There’s no shortage of athletes. There’s also a lot of destinations we go to. If we’ve got a limitation on what number of events that we are able to do in prime time, and we don’t actually need to do middle-of-the-night events, Paris, London, a few of the destinations where we’ve either got an increased variety of athletes, we’ve got our teams here, we’ve got major media deals, those typically are higher priority destinations. London is a destination for us. I can’t remember the last time we’ve done a press conference with this many media. Guaranteed that a major number (of ticket sales) were outside of the U.K. It’s the destination – it’s easy for people to come back to, o it makes it easier to sell tickets. We’ve got a very healthy relationship with Pulsat and a lot of other partners in Poland, and it is going to be on the list for 2026 and beyond.
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