Lost in the hype for this weekend's UFC 148 fight card at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas - which is understandable, as the Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen rematch may be the most anticipated fight in UFC history - was the Tuesday night announcement that the Octagon is headed to China.
The UFC is set to make its Chinese debut on November 10 in Macau, with UFC on Fuel TV 6. The event will take place at the CotaiArena, a 15,000-seat venue at the Venetian Macau Resort Hotel. No fights have been announced for the event, but one would figure that Tiequan Zhang would be a natural to compete. The "Mongolian Wolf" is 1-2 as a featherweight in the UFC, but as the only Chinese-born fighter on the roster, it would make sense to have him on the card.
On the other hand, it's safe to say that former No. 1 welterweight contender Dan Hardy is unlikely to appear. Besides the fact that "the Outlaw" is already booked to fight in his hometown of Nottingham, England in September at UFC on Fuel TV 5 - he'll fight former The Ultimate Fighter winner Amir Sadollah - there's also the matter of his tattoos. When Hardy challenged Georges St-Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship at UFC 111 in March, the UFC had to airbrush out his tattoo (a Tibetan Buddhist prayer written in Sanskrit) out of promotional materials, so as not to impede the UFC's efforts to expand into China.
However, while talk of bouts and fighters may be premature, the greater significance is in the UFC expanding into the Chinese market. This has been a major effort for the UFC, and staging an event in Macau is a momentous achievement in the promotion's history.
The last couple of years have seen major efforts from the UFC to grow its global brand, and 2012 alone has seen the UFC hold two events in Brazil, one in Australia, one in Sweden and one in Japan, with three Canadian events, a return to the U.K. and now China on tap for the rest of the year. While the success of the event can't be guaranteed, the fact that it's taking place is a success in itself.
One of UFC president Dana White's most familiar tropes in promoting his sport is that fighting is universal, and that the act of two men fighting in a cage using any martial art they choose translates in any country around the world. Going to China, a country with a rich martial arts tradition, is a natural move, and given the size of the Chinese market, the success of UFC on Fuel TV 6 could take the promotion to a new level.