It looks like the UFC will continue to keep Canada dead in its sights with our without the country’s biggest star, Georges St-Pierre. Tom Wright, the Director of Operations for UFC Canada announced on Monday that Zuffa has 5 events planned for our Northern brothers & sisters this year. Wright made the announcement at a press conference ahead of the TUF Nations Finale in Quebec City (transcript via MMAJunkie)
“We’ll also be taking the UFC into four other communities with UFC Experience, which is all about taking our athletes and brand and message into communities that most likely will never host a UFC event,” Wright said. “(We’ll visit) British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. By the end of the year, we’ll have been in six of Canada’s 10 provinces and truly have had an opportunity to bring our sport to as many locations as possible.”
Vancouver will once again be the stop for the UFC in British Colombia. It will be the third trip for the UFC, the first since UFC 131 in 2011. Vancouver has been something of a questionable destination for the UFC in the past as it almost failed to hold UFC 115 in the city as there were no regulations in place to govern MMA events at the time. When the UFC returned in 2011 it had to compete with that year’s Stanley Cup finals between the Canucks and Bruins. Hopefully the UFC can make their 2014 trip somewhat more favorable.
This year the UFC also has plans to visit Halifax, Nova Scotia, Toronto, and Montreal. It will be interesting to see what headliners they have planned for these events, and whether or not they splash out and bring in some new Canadian talent along the way.
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