UFC is hosting its first ever event in Beijing this weekend and as part of the pre-fight hype they’ve announced that they’ll be opening “the world’s largest, state-of-the-art MMA training and development facility” in Shanghai next year.
The 93,000 square foot facility will reportedly cost 13 million USD to develop, a figure that is testament to the potential UFC see in the “beating the crap out of each other” market in China.
“There is over a billion people in China and that economy is booming, it’s a big initiative for us,” UFC president Dana White told ESPN. “And the way you make a market grow is find a world champion who is from there.” Aka, “The Yao Ming formula”. This push into China will no doubt raise some eyebrows over at ONE Championship, the UFC’s Singapore-based MMA rival.
According to an official blurb from UFC, the new complex will “serve as a training hub to develop and support MMA athletes from mainland China and the greater Asia-Pacific region.” It goes on to say that,
UFC will also utilize the building as its headquarters in Asia, housing UFC employees and UFC Performance Institute staff, including experts in the fields of MMA, strength and conditioning, sports science, physical therapy and nutrition.
UFC Performance Institute Shanghai will also have built-in advanced production capabilities with spectator seating that will allow UFC to produce and distribute live events and other original programming.
Exciting stuff for wannabe Chinese Conor McGregors. But it also leads to the inevitable question:
