UFC president Dana White has announced that UFC 261 will run at full capacity in Florida next month with three championship fights scheduled.
The video stated that the event, scheduled for April 24th, will take place from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida with White pushing the fact that “15,000 fans” will be in attendance. The same arena hosted three empty arena events for the UFC last May including the UFC 249 pay-per-view.
WE ARE BACK!!!!!!#UFC261 April 24th. Jacksonville, FL. FULL CROWD. pic.twitter.com/5dy7wb4OWE
— danawhite (@danawhite) March 16, 2021
It will be the UFC’s first event in front of an arena opened to full capacity since March 2020 for UFC 248 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry posted the following message:
@danawhite ,@GovRonDeSantis, and I will continue to demonstrate that Florida is poised to safely host signature sporting events watched globally. Welcome back to Jacksonville @ufc. Let’s go @danawhite
White also added that Kamaru Usman will defend the UFC welterweight championship against Jorge Masvidal in a rematch from UFC 251 last July where Usman defeated Masvidal by unanimous decision.
That championship fight joins the previously announced title fights between Valentina Shevchenko and Jessica Andrade for the flyweight championship, and Zhang Weili defends the strawweight championship against Rose Namajunas.
White stated that tickets will go on sale “soon” with no date revealed.
White had previously expressed interest in going to Texas as soon as this month but said he received pushback from the Mayors of Dallas and Houston when he inquired about running at full capacity in the cities. A member of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation told MMA Fighting that the UFC needs to find a venue and submit the paperwork. A spokesperson for the Mayor of Dallas told the same outlet they were unaware of any restrictions for the UFC to run a card in the city.
