A Shanghai glove affair

The Ultimate Fighting Championship continues to punch high and heavy in its global ambition with a return to the Chinese mainland expected to help elevate mixed martial arts into the nation's sporting mainstream.

Six years since last staging a live event in the mainland, the Las Vegas-based MMA promotion has realized that, when bringing its fights back again, public awareness of the mixed-discipline combat sport has grown much stronger than expected, paving the way for guaranteed success on its return this summer.

"When we had our first fight in 2017, we had cautious optimism, we didn't know for sure if we would do well," Kevin Chang, UFC senior vice-president and head of Asia, said of UFC's mainland debut in Shanghai, which was followed over the next two years by events in Beijing and Shenzhen.

"This time around, we know what to expect," Chang said after the UFC announced last week that it will host its second Fight Night in Shanghai on Aug 23.

"We know it's going to be well attended and have huge media interest, and this will create waves that will set us up for more success in the future. That's the expectation now, not a hope."

Sure, the MMA juggernaut has every reason to expect a smashing success this time around, now that it has signed 17 Chinese athletes to multi-fight contracts, crowned a world champion in strawweight belt holder Zhang Weili, opened its largest Performance Institute in the country, and amassed over 16 million followers across major social media platforms.

Although not having confirmed the matchups on the card yet, the Fight Night at the Shanghai Indoor Stadium will be a celebration of MMA's exponential growth in China and a statement to the UFC's continuous localization efforts, Chang said.

"Our Chinese athletes are making a statement in UFC that they are a force to be reckoned with, and we are excited to showcase their talent in the city where it all began," he added.

The Fight Night will be the fourth such show to be held on the mainland and eighth overall on Chinese soil, including four events held in the Macao Special Administrative Region from 2012-2024.

The event will be co-organized by Shanghai's Municipal Sports Bureau, Alibaba subsidiary Orange Lion Sports and UFC's broadcast partner Migu, a China Mobile-owned streaming platform.

"We have always maintained close communication with top international events and organization such as UFC, and this collaboration to bring the UFC event back to Shanghai will deepen our presence in the sports industry," said Mu Yang, chairman and CEO of Orange Lion Sports, formerly known as Alibaba Sports.

"The city of Shanghai, as our headquarters, has given us great support. This collaboration with UFC has ushered us into a new era. In the future, we will bring more influential events to the doorstep of Chinese fans."