At the UFC 148, UFC President Dana White joked about how he personally would be received in Russia, given his contentious history with Fedor’s management team.
“I don’t know how well I’d do in Russia,” White said. “But yeah – we’re actually taking an event to Russia very soon. Very soon. Sooner than you’d think.”
“It’s important every time we go into a new market to be successful. We just went to Japan. We were trying to get into Japan for so long and to do an event there. We finally got it off the ground, and it was a huge success. Now we’re going into China, and we’re hoping to really introduce that country to the UFC and mixed martial arts.”
“I think every time we go into a new country and put on a huge, great event, it starts to spark in the country. People start training, gyms start opening, and more and more fighters start to come out of those countries.”
