Outside Source
That could change in the future, according to a recent report from Hawaiian news outlet KHON2. Talks between the state and the promotion occurred after UFC CEO Dana White and former champ Max Holloway were in Maui to help wildfire survivors in the area. During that visit, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green was able to meet with the UFC CEO.
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Green told KHON2 that Hawaii has shown “major interest” in hosting a UFC event.
“We want to bring UFC to Hawaii. We’ve also talked to some of the benefactors of the UFC to do that,” he said.
While a UFC Hawaii event with Holloway at the top of the card would be a significant attraction for the state, Green added that ideally, the relationship would go further than that.
“It’s not just going to be one fight. What we’d like to do is a partnership with UFC, where we can perhaps bring a training facility like they have in Las Vegas to the stadium district. I think it’s a very good plan for us. We’ll hash out these details in the coming months. But again, that’s more economic growth. It’s more opportunity to kind of reshape some of the tourism experience that we have, and it’s something that people are very high on,” Green said.
Hawaii Has New Stadium in the Works
It still could be some time before the UFC ventures to the Aloha State, however, because the report mentions the launch of a new stadium in 2029 as a key component of the relationship.
“So we already have three beautiful renderings,” Green said. “We had $350 million into the project. Also, I’ll be bringing a lot of extra infrastructure dollars and transportation dollars in partnership with the federal government. That’s part of our grand plan as we move forward. And we’re going to announce in the coming days a statement of principles, which is always protecting the land, protecting our people in the environment, but also having a sensible relationship with the military on land use, on where we do our bases in training. But that’s a way we can support the stadium and its infrastructure. And then it goes stadium, hopefully UFC, and housing, because we expect to have about 5,000 housing units over time there, and it is important that we have these extra partners. I continue to look for these affluent partners that are committed to Hawaii, and you will see that in the coming months and years, but we finally got those contracts signed, so we can go forward.”
Hawaii is known for having a strong fight culture, and Green believes that interest will be a driving factor to eventually bring the UFC to the state.
“Having that kind of excitement, there’s a person-to-person, higher rate of interest in UFC in Hawaii than anywhere else in the country, except for maybe Nevada,” he said.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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