UFC 138: The 7 Most Important Foreign Countries in UFC History

"One country to rule them all, One country to find them, One country to bring them all and in the darkness bind them!"

The UFC has made a point of becoming a multinational organization and the United Kingdom's UFC 138 is just one step towards that goal.

However, some foreign nations that the UFC has frequented were more important than others in the grand scheme of things, and one was more important than all of them!

Which foreign country was the most important? Does the UK top the list due to its fueling of the UFC's global expansion. What about Canada's love of the UFC? Does that make them the most important country? Or does Japan take the number one slot due to essentially creating MMA with pancrase and shooto?

The most important one may surprise you. What is it? Read and find out!

Honorable Mentions: Puerto Rico, Ireland and China

Whether or not you count Puerto Rico as a country (it's officially a commonwealth but some might consider it a proper country), its contributions to the UFC were negligible.

Yes, it gave the pre-Zuffa UFC a place to hold UFC 8 when John McCain and his hoard of narrow-minded politicians crusaded against the UFC, but it hasn't done anything since. 

Concerning Ireland, expansion there wasn't anything too special since the UFC had already been to Northern Ireland and the UK.

And China? The UFC hasn't even had an event there yet. It may be the most important market that the UFC breaks into in the future, but this is about the most important countries in UFC history (meaning so far), so China doesn't mean a whole lot yet.

7. United Arab Emirates

UFC 112 took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and was the very first UFC event to take place in the Middle East.

However, holding in event in the UAE didn't really accomplish much besides appeasing the Abu Dhabi- government-owned Flash Entertainment, who hold a minority stake in the ownership of the UFC.

6. Australia

Australia has some die-hard MMA fans and has been frequented twice by the UFC, but the world's smallest continent (or alternatively, the world's largest island) doesn't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

When your country's contributions to MMA were UFC 127 (where Jon Fitch and B.J. Penn had their disappointing draw) and Elvis Sinosic, that's not exactly a good thing.

5. Japan

Japan has made amazing contributions to MMA in the past (pancrase, Pride, etc.) but hasn't done a whole lot for the UFC, specifically the Zuffa-owned UFC.

The UFC did hold some events there back when the promotion was owned by SEG, but those were to no avail since the UFC ultimately abandoned the Japanese market anyway.

In the modern era, Japanese MMA has fallen on hard times and its fighters haven't been able to significantly contribute to the UFC (unless you count padding American fighters' records as contribution).

However, the UFC has an event planned for Japan in February 2012, so the island nation's importance to the UFC will almost definitely increase in the future.

4. Germany

Germany is important to the UFC's European expansion efforts but, so far, it's only hosted two events and those were held under significant controversy, with minors being forbidden from attending one and the UFC being banned from German television!

Germany certainly has a crucial role to play in the UFC's growth, it just hasn't played it yet.

3. Canada

Canadians, before you go crazy, please keep in mind that only a hair's length separates the last three countries.

Canada is arguably the mecca (or one of the meccas) of the UFC. The sport is incredibly popular there and Canada is responsible for the UFC's most attended event, UFC 129, with over 55,000 present in the Rogers Centre.

Canada has also made a significant contribution in fighters, including greats like UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre and Mark Hominick.

2. The United Kingdom

Technically, the United Kingdom is actually several countries (England, Scotland and Northern Ireland) but for argument's sake it's being counted as one (but don't tell Bleacher Report's resident Brit, Jonathan Shrager).

Why is the UK so important when it seems like its primary purposes are to be a venue for cards that were too poor to be held in the US and to send the UFC overrated fighters?

The UK served as the gateway to the UFC's global expansion.

The UFC started its global domination with the UK; it developed its strategies for overseas expansion in the UK.

Without the UK market to expand to, who knows if the UFC would've been so successful expanding elsewhere!

1. Brazil

Brazil's contribution to MMA and to the UFC cannot be matched by any one nation.

First, Brazilian jiu-jitsu was instrumental in the creation of the UFC (the event was the brainchild of Rorion Gracie who envisioned an infomercial for his family's fighting style) and of the very sport of MMA itself.

In addition, some of the best fighters in the history of the UFC have been Brazilian.

Outside of the United States (which isn't included in the list for obvious reasons), no other country has given as much to the UFC as Brazil. If you take Brazil's contributions away, you are left with nothing.