Former UFC bantamweight sees stadium events as big win for the promotion: "They have a huge fanbase"
A former UFC bantamweight recently weighed in on the promotion's capability of hosting events in stadiums and believes that they should consider putting together more of those sorts of events. There have been a few stadium events in the past, but it hasn't been something a major priority, as it is in the case of the WWE.
To put it into perspective, the promotion's first stadium event took place at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada in 2011, which is still their only stadium event in North America. The MMA leader has rarely hosted stadium events since then, with the most recent taking place at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia in 2019.
During his appearance on The Game Plan, former UFC bantamweight Johnny Munoz opened up about the possibilities for the promotion should they host more stadium events. Munoz stated that they have an enormous fanbase and used other sports as an example for the electric atmosphere that a stadium would provide. He said:
"If you look at old boxing events like when Julio Cesar Chavez fought in Mexico, all those stadium events, that looks pretty crazy. I feel like UFC, they could do it. They have a huge fanbase but I don't know what the reasoning is...I don't think people really care [about the weather issue] but in the United States, Vegas doesn't have too many weather issues." [13:54 - 14:40]
Which fight headlined the latest UFC stadium event?
Selling out a stadium requires a great card, as well as a lot of star power to be truly successful, and UFC 243 was a great example of a card that had it all.
UFC 243 took place at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia and was headlined by the middleweight title unification bout between then champion Robert Whittaker and interim champion Israel Adesanya. It was a star-making performance for Adesanya, who made quite an entrance and capped off the night by earning an impressive second-round knockout to become undisputed middleweight champion.
Check out Israel Adesanya's post-fight interview below: