UFC in England: Nottingham Rumored as Site of October U.K. Event

The UFC may have found a location and date for its return to the U.K. later this year, according to This is Nottingham.

The website reports that the world’s biggest mixed martial arts organization has provisionally booked Ice Arena in Nottingham on October 15, 2011 as the site of a yet-to-be-determined UFC event.

According to the report, Nottingham is still in competition with Liverpool as a host for the event, but things are looking good for the home of UFC star Dan Hardy.

Neither city has hosted a UFC event before.

The last U.K. event, UFC 120, was headlined by the country’s biggest star, Michael Bisping, as he defeated Yoshihiro Akiyama in London. The event narrowly beat out UFC 105 as the promotion’s most-attended U.K. event, with 17,133 fans packing the O2 Arena last October.

Bisping, who has fought in four of the last five events in his home country, is still awaiting the date of his next fight after defeating Jorge Rivera by TKO at UFC 127. As the biggest English MMA star, he seems like a logical choice to headline yet another event in front of his biggest fans.

Dan Hardy would also seem to be a likely candidate for a fight at the event, as he could be fighting for his UFC life in his next contest.

Including losing his UFC Welterweight Title opportunity to Georges St-Pierre, Hardy has dropped three straight fights after a one-sided loss to Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in Seattle last month.

England remains a hot location for the UFC and should only continue to grow as the country produces more top-level mixed martial artists.