London has become one of the UFC’s main locations over the past few years after Dana White fell in love with the capital after a monumental event.
This coming Saturday, the promotion once again lands at the O2 Arena in London for the 5th time since 2022, as former UFC welterweight champion, Leon Edwards is set to take on Sean Brady in the main event.
The fight was put together on relatively short notice after Edwards’ initial opponent, Jack Della Maddalena was upgraded to take on Belal Muhammad for the title.
London has become one of Dana White‘s favorite locations to host UFC events because of the notoriously raucous fanbase.
READ MORE: Leon Edwards scored one of the fastest knockouts ever to bounce back after UFC debut defeat
‘The biggest Fight Night in UFC history’ made Dana White fall in love with London
UFC 38: Brawl at the Hall in 2002 was the first time the promotion landed in London and since then, it has become one of the most popular locations around the world.
After the COVID-19 pandemic when the UFC began attempting to host events in different locations again, they returned to the O2 in London in March 2022.
The event saw the awaited debut of Muhammad Mokaev who went on to finish Cody Durden in emphatic fashion, as well as Ilia Topuria scoring a devastating KO over Jai Herbert.
Paddy Pimblett also made his long awaited first UK UFC appearance when he submitted Kazula Vargas in the first round after an incredibly memorable walkout.
The event included nine incredible finishes which is one of the highest amounts from any Fight Night event and it resulted in White labelling it as ‘The biggest Fight Night in UFC history’ and awarding every fighter who scored a finish with a bonus.
That is despite the fact that he was left covered head to toe in beer as a result of the insane UK fanbase.
“Crazy, incredible night. The energy in this place, the buzz, the fights, we broke the record here at the O2 Arena and it was the biggest Fight Night of all time,” White told ESPN MMA
“My voice is gone, my brain is gone and I’m covered head to toe in beer right now. I got hit with like two beers on the way out,” he continued.
Dana White was so impressed that he changed the UFC’s 2022 schedule to return to London
After such an incredible event that left the UFC boss practically speechless, he immediately made the decision to change the rest of the promotion’s schedule that year to return to London again.
Typically, it was rare for the UFC to host multiple events in a location outside of the United States in the same year, however, that has seemingly changed now with the Middle East getting several events a year.
“Tonight re-energized me and reminded me of what it’s like to do fights over in the UK. We’re coming back here this year. I don’t give a s— what the schedule is. We’re gonna be moving s— around when we get home,” White said at the post-fight press conference.
Unfortunately for the fanbase and the promotion, the succeeding event didn’t go down as well, as Tom Aspinall brutally suffered a fight ending knee injury in the main event and there were only five finishes throughout the entire card.