UFC executive reveals UFC Africa is ‘definitely a thing for 2025’ after Dricus Du Plessis’ impressive title defense

Despite claiming for years that they would finally hold an event in the region, it never happened. Then Francis Ngannou left the organizer and Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya lost their titles.

Dave Shaw announces that UFC Africa 2025 will “definitely” take place

However, Dricus Du Plessis quickly rose through the rankings after his UFC debut in 2020 and captured the UFC middleweight title, making an event in Africa possible again.

Before his barweight title defense against Israel Adesanya last Saturday, UFC general manager Dana White claimed that the South African would compete in his home country if he successfully defended his title.

“Stillknocks” eventually secured the victory by submission in the fourth round, retaining his title and possibly finally securing his participation in an event in Africa.

Following the event, UFC Executive Vice President and Head of International and Content David Shaw reiterated the promoter's plans to finally hold an event in Africa and said they will not miss out on this potential a second time.

“I think we're probably closer than we've been in a long time (to an event in Africa) and there's significant interest from multiple countries. The situation with Dricus is difficult, I mean, he's a champion. Are we going to do a PPV there in the same time zone as the UK? We just did the event in Manchester so it's absolutely possible, but we also want to make a good first impression,” Shaw said at the UFC 305 post-fight press conference.

“When we come to continental Africa for the first time, do we want to run an event in the middle of the night? One thing is clear, going back to Manchester: if Dana wants to run an event for the fans and to promote the sport, despite any headwinds or operational challenges, where the event is taking place and what time it needs to be booked, then he will make that decision.

“The short answer is we have a few different countries in mind, but that's definitely a 2025 thing, we don't want to wait much longer,” Shaw continued.

UFC is still not ready to hold stadium shows without a roof

Despite potentially making a breakthrough with UFC Africa, the promoter is sticking to its stance of holding shows in roofless stadiums.

For years, UFC fans in the UK have been calling for the event to be held in a stadium, as there have been recent problems obtaining tickets for the smaller arena shows.

White has always felt that the weather in the UK is too unreliable to host a stadium show, especially one without a roof. Dave Shaw echoed this view, stating that it is unlikely they will host stadium shows in the near future.

“We don't want to take the risk of the weather. The production costs would be enormous if we had to deal with the weather. And then there's the risk that the pitch could be really negatively affected,” Shaw explained.

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