The UFC continues to creep out into all the major countries in the world, with the latest destination added to the schedule being Russia. News of the show, which will take place in Moscow’s 35,000 person Olympiyskiy Stadium on the weekend of September 15th, was revealed by RT and comes at a very interesting time for the promotion and its roster of Russian and Russian Caucus fighters.
At the front of the pack is Khabib Nurmagomedov, whose position as one of the best lightweights in the world was re-solidified when he absolutely smashed Edson Barbosa at UFC 219 in December. Lightweight champ Conor McGregor has expressed interest in a Rocky style showdown with Khabib in Russia, and it’s hard to take this move as anything other than the UFC hoping things fall into place that set up that confrontation for this newly booked venue.
Of course, a lot of things can go wrong between now and then. McGregor seems in no rush to return to action after a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather that netted him over $100 million dollars. And then there’s interim lightweight champ Tony Ferguson, who logic dictates should fight Conor first. If Tony and Khabib fight it out for the right to fight Conor, there’s a decent chance Ferguson would win. And then there’s ‘pull out merchant’ Khabib’s history of being injured and missing weight. The Dagestani fighter has only made it into the cage three times in the past three years.
So McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov seems like a bit of a moonshot, but at least the UFC has plenty of local guys to stack the undercard with. There’s Mairbek Taisumov, Oleksiy Oliynyk, Rashid Magomedov, Ali Bagautinov, Adlan Amagov, and many other guys who are as tough in the cage as their names are to spell for poor sportswriters like me.
There’s another complication for the event that needs working out, too: the time difference between Russia and North America. The UFC is loathe to hold pay-per-view events outside of the typical 10PM to 1AM EST window, and Moscow is 8 hours ahead of us. That means any event in Russian primetime would end up being an afternoon show here, raising the risk that this would be relegated to UFC Fight Night status with lesser fights than a pay-per-view might draw.
But there’s over 8 months between now and then for everything to shake out. Whatever happens, the UFC will be headed to Moscow in September, and it will be very interesting to see what their debut in Russia ends up looking like.
