It seems that plans for a first UFC event in Africa are picking up, with the continent’s sole champion expected to be the marquee attraction.
September 18, 2024
Image: UFC.com
In his post-fight press conference after UFC 306, Dana White once again stressed that finally bringing the Octagon to Africa is a big priority for the promotion.
Hosting events in new locations is never an easy process for the MMA leader, but when you have a champion like Dricus Du Plessis, where there is a will, there is a way.
The reaction that the middleweight champion received after his title-winning performance at UFC 297 really got the ball rolling.
It’s clear that there would be huge interest in seeing the Octagon touch down in South Africa with Du Plessis headlining the show, but the logistics of making it happen is where issues occur.
The biggest hurdle to get past when looking at stadium shows is the weather, something White has long cited when pushing back on such events. However, it looks like Cape Town Stadium are ready to make some sizable investments to remove this barrier to entry…
Mayor Of Cape Town Reveals Proposal To Build Temporary Roof Over Cape Town Stadium
The Executive Major of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, recently spoke about plans to build a temporary roof in order to bring the UFC to the stadium.
In an interview with Cape Talk, Hill-Lewis said that he expects things to move relatively quickly.
“We’ve said to the national government, the minister (Gayton McKenzie), that we think we could do it absolutely soon, sometime around March next year. But we would need confirmation quite soon so that we could get cracking.” (h/t IOL)
Though there are other venues that could host a major UFC event, they simply don’t have the capacity of the 55,000 seater that was built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Hill-Lewis approximated that it would take around two months to build and would cost upwards of R30m (around $1.7 million).
There has been some pushback from other figures, such as the founder of lobby group Stop CoCT Sandra Dickson, who have criticized whether it’s necessary to do this rather than hosting it another venue, calling the plan “a limited short-term and temporary solution.”
