MMA: Dana White to bring UFC to the Philippines

Dana White has spoken. The UFC is coming to the Philippines.

 

"Everybody's saying 'you're doing too many fights'. We're not doing enough fights," said White, in an interview with Filipino journalist Gretchen Malalad, at the Urijah Faber-Renan Barao presser held at Madison Square Garden on Thursday (Friday, PHL time).

"There are places that are starving for [UFC] and that's what we set up for this year. We're traveling all throughout Asia. We wanna get down to the Philippines. We know we'd be huge in the Philippines."

 

This is not the first time that the UFC has entertained the thought of penetrating the Philippine MMA market.

 

"I know years ago, we were going to go to the Philippines and it all fell apart," recalled White. "What happened was we were planning on doing that thing and we had a big sponsor behind us and then the sponsor fell through. We're getting closer and closer now. The Philippines is next."

[Related: Dana White says UFC to hold a fight card in the Philippines next year - report]

In August of 2013, White was quoted as saying that the UFC would hold a fight card in the Philippines in 2014.
 

White also expressed his excitement in seeing Filipino talent compete in the UFC: 

 

"We know there are so many fans down there and the Filipinos love UFC and love fighting. As we go into this Asian market I think we're gonna see a lot of talent come out of the Philippines."

 

"The reality is, guys training down there can get into the UFC through this whole Asia program we put together," White added. - GMA News