The rumored UFC return to Australia reportedly will be official next week.
According to a report from PerthNow, UFC 284 will be announced for Perth on Tuesday by Roger Cook, the tourism minister for Western Australia. He’ll be joined by UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
UFC 284 will take place at RAC Arena on Feb. 11 in the U.S. Like most past UFC shows in Australia, the event will take place Sunday morning locally in Perth to account for the 12-hour time difference between that and the U.S. Eastern time zone.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the event will come five years to the day since the first and so far only UFC visit in Perth – UFC 221 on Feb. 11, 2018. In the UFC 221 main event, Yoel Romero knocked out Luke Rockhold in an interim middleweight title fight, but couldn’t win the interim belt because he missed weight.
The UFC’s most recent visit to Australia came in October 2019 for UFC 243 in Melbourne, where Israel Adesanya won the middleweight title with a knockout of Robert Whittaker.
No fights have been announced for UFC 284 yet. Volkanovski is awaiting his next title defense after a third win over former champ Max Holloway at UFC 276 in July. Whittaker, based in Australia, beat Marvin Vettori in September, so could be ready for a return. Adesanya, who trains in New Zealand, puts his middleweight title on the line next month in New York against Alex Pereira. Tai Tuivasa, another popular UFC fighter from Australia, was knocked by Ciryl Gane five weeks ago in Paris. The timing may be right for his return, too.
UFC 284 will be the promotion’s 16th overall trip to Australia. Along with Perth and the aforementioned Melbourne, the UFC also has touched down in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Gold Coast.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 284.
