UFC President Dana White reveals plans for a 2014 event at US Airways Center
Jul 25, 2013, 11:59 PM | Updated: Jul 26, 2013, 12:02 am
With Phoenix native John Moraga set to challenge Demetrious Johnson for the UFC Flyweight championship Saturday, the former ASU wrestler will look to join fighters Cain Velasquez, Benson Henderson and Dominick Cruz as UFC champions with very strong ties to Arizona.
Combine this with UFC superstars Ryan Bader, C.B. Dollaway and Kyle Kingsbury and MMA icons Aaron Simpson, Dan Henderson, Don Frye and Dan Severn having ties to Arizona State and it only makes sense for the UFC to try and hold an event in the Valley.
For years, Arizona fight fans wondered why the biggest fighting organization on the planet had only managed to hold one event in the Grand Canyon State, WEC 53 at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale.
In an exclusive interview with Power MMA Show host Jim Grieshaber at last month’s UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas, UFC President Dana White revealed plans to bring a fight card to the U.S. Airways Center sometime next year.
“I was thinking about this year [2013] bringing an event down to Arizona” said White. “It didn’t work, but we will do a Fight Night down there.”
UFC sources have told Grieshaber it will likely be a Fox Sports 1 event, and it might even happen before the end of this year.
