5 Locations We Want to See UFC Go to in 2024

UFC 289, set for June 10 in Vancouver, British Columbia, will mark the promotion's first event in Canada since UFC Fight Night 158 in September 2019, which was in the same city.

The UFC's return to Canada is part of a larger trend: With the worst of the pandemic behind us, the Las Vegas-based company has gotten back to promoting events internationally, returning to the markets it could not access during the crisis.

By this point, most of the UFC schedule for 2023 is confirmed, and while the coming months are expected to see the promotion return to hotspots such as the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and Australia, many MMA-crazy countries will not be getting a visit this year.

Some of those countries have gone ages without a UFC card, and others have never been visited by the promotion.

While acknowledging that the promotion of high-quality MMA cards in foreign markets is challenging, here are five international cities we think are ready for a UFC card in 2024.

Mexico City

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Alexa Grasso

After Brandon Moreno defeated Deiveson Figueiredo to win the men's flyweight title in January, and Alexa Grasso shocked Valentina Shevchenko to claim the women's flyweight belt in March, the UFC now has two undisputed champions from Mexico.

That number could climb to three in July if interim featherweight champion Yair Rodríguez defeats undisputed titleholder Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 290, although that, admittedly, is a tall order.

One way or the other, the UFC has never been better positioned to push into the Mexican market. In fact, it's shocking that the promotion has no plans to visit the country in 2023.

Moreno and Grasso are both popular fighters at home and internationally. Having both fighters defending their belts in Mexico City has the potential to be huge. And if Rodríguez was added to the mix, it would be even bigger.

The promotion has visited Mexico before—six times in total—but not since 2017, and certainly not with so many world-class fighters from the nation at its disposal.

Next year would seem like the time, but only if the promotion's current Mexican champs can hold onto their titles until then, which isn't going to be easy.

Tokyo

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Tatsuro Taira punches CJ Vergara

Japan is one of the most important countries in MMA history, but it has not hosted a UFC event since 2017.

Then, the promotion arrived at the Saitama Super Arena outside Tokyo with a mediocre card headlined by one-time light heavyweight title challenger Ovince Saint Preux and short-notice replacement opponent Yushin Okami, a former welterweight who was choked out inside two minutes.

Luckily, Japanese fans have had the exciting Rizin Fighting Federation to keep them entertained in the meantime. ONE Championship also promoted two of its biggest cards ever in the country in 2019.

However, those fans are undoubtedly ready for another UFC show. And with the country fully reopened to international visitors, 2024 would seem like the right time.

The timing could be fortuitous, too, as undefeated Tatsuro Taira, 23, is rapidly closing in on flyweight title contention, and several Japanese prospects are looking to earn contracts with the promotion through the ongoing Road to UFC series.

Toronto or Montréal

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UFC hall-of-famer Georges St-Pierre.

As mentioned, the UFC is headed back to Vancouver in less than two weeks' time. That's great news for fight fans on the west coast of Canada, but it means little to the rest of the vast country.

For context, it takes over 10 hours to drive from Calgary to Vancouver. The drive from cities like Toronto, Montréal and Ottawa—three of the biggest municipalities in the country—would take several days even for someone with no regard for speed limits.

It's great the UFC is headed back to Canada, but 2024 will be the time for the promotion to look East, specifically Montréal and Toronto.

Montréal is, arguably, the most important city in the promotion's history in Canada, as the setting of its earliest visits and the home of former two-division champ and Hall-of-Famer Georges St-Pierre. It's also gone without a UFC visit since 2015.

Toronto has had fewer UFC cards than Montréal, but its first visit from the promotion—UFC 129 in April 2011—was one of the biggest events in MMA history, with over 55,000 fans packed into the Rogers Centre.

Throw in the fact that the upcoming UFC 289 card is fairly weak in terms of mainstream appeal, and there's even more reason to give another Canadian city something special next year.

Dublin

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Conor McGregor supports Katie Taylor at a boxing match in Ireland.

Dublin has hosted three UFC events in the past, due in large part to the explosive popularity of Conor McGregor.

However, the promotion hasn't visited the Irish city since UFC Fight Night 46 in 2015, which was headlined by a short-notice scrap between Hawaii's Louis Smolka and hometown hero Paddy Holohan, who was submitted in Round 2.

While McGregor has not fought since suffering a horrible leg injury in a fight with Dustin Poirier in 2021, he is adamant that he is not retired and is expected to fight former Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler sometime in the near future, hopefully this year.

No matter the outcome of his potential fight with Chandler, Notorious will remain a big enough star to pack an arena in Dublin. At this point, though, the promotion likely wouldn't even need the 34-year-old to promote a successful event in the Republic of Ireland.

Ian Garry, 25, is one of the hottest young contenders in the welterweight division and could headline a card there next year, particularly if the promotion stacks the bill with other talent from Ireland and Europe.

Lagos

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Francis Ngannou, Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman.

The UFC has been talking about debuting in Africa for years, but it blew the perfect opportunity to do so.

For a short time, the promotion had three undisputed champions from the continent: Nigeria's Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman at middleweight and welterweight, respectively, and Francis Ngannou of Cameroon at heavyweight.

Had the UFC taken those three titleholders to a city like Lagos (Nigeria), Dakar (Senegal) or Johannesburg (South Africa), it would have been an absolute blockbuster.

Regrettably, Usman has since lost his title and Ngannou has left the UFC after a highly publicized contract dispute, depriving the promotion of some of its best assets in terms of an event in Africa.

Still, it's probably not too late.

Despite losing his title to Alex Pereira last year, Adesanya is again the middleweight champ and could headline a card in Lagos. Usman, despite suffering back-to-back losses to Leon Edwards, remains one of the UFC welterweight division's top fighters.

It won't be the show it might have been if the UFC had acted sooner, but it could still put together a huge event in the bustling Nigerian metropolis.

Hopefully, it will happen in 2024.