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Senegal is the frontrunner to host the UFC’s first event in Africa, described by organisers as a “seminal event in history”.
Africa is the only continent yet to host a UFC event, but the BBC has been told the aim is to rectify that at some point next year, with the Dakar Arena the most likely destination.
“A UFC event in Africa has been on our radar for many years,” Lawrence Epstein, the UFC’s chief operating officer, told BBC Sport Africa.
“The first thing we look for is an arena that suits our size requirements. We like those arenas that are within the 12,000 to 20,000 range (of seats).
“Africa certainly has some smaller arenas – there is nothing wrong with that but we like to pack arenas, to create a tremendous amount of energy and, of course, the more tickets you have to sell the better.
“That’s why Dakar is leading because they have one of the larger arenas in sub-Saharan Africa and a lot of events have already gone there with success.
“Senegal is top of the list based upon the information that our team has put together.
“The next step is to get our entire operation team down to do a site survey, evaluate the arena and all the infrastructure we need to put on an event.”
Located in Diamniadio, 19 miles outside Senegal’s capital city, Dakar, the arena opened in August 2018 and boasts a capacity of 15,000.
As well as playing host to Senegal’s international sides, it hosted the 2019 Women’s Afrobasket and regular season conferences in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in 2022 and 2023.
With America’s NBA heavily involved in setting up the BAL, the UFC could become the second influential American sports organisation to invest in Senegal.
The Dakar Arena is one of Africa’s leading indoor venues and regularly hosts international and continental basketball
“We have a lot of good friends at the NBA so we have talked with them about what they are doing, what their aspirations are, what is happening with the BAL,” Epstein said.
“We want to make sure we properly understand the market, investigate potential local partners. And then start locking in dates and hopefully get an event on the calendar for 2024, which is going to be massive.”
