UFC has finally announced its return to the UAE, with UFC 281 set for Abu Dhabi on October 22 at the Etihad Arena.
The event will also see the return of Abu Dhabi Showdown Week, the third event of a five-year partnership.
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While Abu Dhabi has been the home to international UFC events over the pandemic, UFC 281 will mark the first time events and activations can return in full physical form in the emirate since UFC 242: KHABIB vs POIRIER in September 2019.
The third Abu Dhabi Showdown Week will host events such as concerts, workshops, pool parties and city-wide activations featuring some of the biggest UFC stars, according to the UFC.
“UFC and Abu Dhabi Showdown Week are massively popular and almost permanent fixtures on our Abu Dhabi Calendar. We strive to deliver the world’s best fighters and we are excited to bring yet another thrilling title bout to Abu Dhabi in October. We look forward to welcoming fans from around the world and showing them why Abu Dhabi is the ultimate UFC destination,” Fatima Al Baloushi, Acting Director of Abu Dhabi Events Bureau, at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), said.
“I can’t wait to bring another event back to Abu Dhabi,” said UFC President Dana White. “Every time we go there the events get bigger and better, and this year we are going all out and bringing back Abu Dhabi Showdown Week in addition to more incredible fights. Fans are not going to want to miss this one.”
UFC’s history in Abu Dhabi
UFC 267: BLACHOWICZ vs TEIXEIRA in October 2021 was the organisation’s first event with expanded fan capacity in the new, state-of-the-art Etihad Arena on Yas Island. Earlier in 2021, the venue hosted UFC 257 events as part of the third instalment of the world-renowned Fight Island series, with limited fan capacity.
UFC 281 will mark the promotion’s 17th overall event in Abu Dhabi, dating back to UFC 112: INVINCIBLE in April 2010. During this time, Abu Dhabi has hosted nine title fights with three new champions crowned.
Stay tuned for more information on the bouts, tickets, events and more.
Khabib: A Look back
Khabib Nurmagomedov retired in Abu Dhabi in the most historic moment in the sport’s history in the UAE thus far–and Esquire Middle East spoke to him all about it.
Khabib has acted, for all intents and purposes, as the coach of the 29-year-old Islam Makhachev, with whom he grew up in the Republic of Dagestan in Russia. The renowned fighter, who retired in sensational fashion only last fall, has yet to fully transition into the next phase in his career, he told Esquire Middle East in an exclusive interview, his first since stepping away from fighting.
“Now that I’m not going to train any more, I have people close to me—brothers and friends—who are now fighting at the highest level,” he says. “There are about five or six people who we are building the path with, and I will help them, train with them, share my experiences,” Khabib told Esquire Middle East.
When asked if he plans on going into coaching the next generation of fighters he stopped short of that accepting the title of coach.
“To some extent, this can be called a coaching life, but I am not going to fully enter into coaching. I will always be there and share my experience.”
Khabib has never been comfortable with the term coach, even for his late father, who passed away from COVID-19 in 2020, and was integral in his success.
“I would not want people to associate him as a coach, as a person who developed wrestling or something else. My father had a lot of projects and the biggest thing he did was he brought up people, brought up a personality and he always told me: “The biggest and best investment is investing in people”,” Khabib said.
“There were a lot of relatives close, whom my father both supported and raised. There were many orphans who he watched over and cared for. So in this direction he left a very large legacy. A lot of people depended on him. Of course, it all depends on the Almighty, but he was the reason for this. So, I thought that he left a huge legacy and over time people will understand it even more.”