You’ve seen the octagon on the beach. You’ve seen the insane fights.
But you’ve never seen exactly HOW the UFC transformed Yas Island in Abu Dhabi into “Fight Island” in the thick of a global pandemic … until now!!
It’s all part of “UFC Fight Island: Declassified” — a 4-part series on ESPN+ (premieres today) featuring some incredible behind the scenes footage showing how Dana White and his team successfully built a secure city to keep MMA alive while every other major sport was shut down.
Remember, Dana first revealed “Fight Island” to TMZ Sports back in April (we actually suggested the name “Fight Island”).
From there, Dana and the UFC spent a fortune on buildings, medical personnel and more to ensure a bubble-style environment to host major fights consistently while the rest of the world was shut down.
In total, the UFC claims it took 400,000 man-hours and 350 tons of metal to get Fight Island up and running.
“There’s no other thing on Earth like this,” Dana says in the doc-series … “There platforms come up once in a blue moon.”
The doc also features UFC superstars like Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal going through all of the COVID testing leading up to their fight.
The UFC faced a ton of criticism leading up to the opening of Fight Island at UFC 251 in July … but ultimately, they executed several major events without a hitch.
In fact, the UFC has already RETURNED to Fight Island for another series of fights including the highly anticipated UFC 254 card featuring Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje on Oct. 24.
Dana White says Fight Island was such a hit, it will be a regular fight location for the UFC for years to come.
“I’m telling you right now, Abu Dhabi is gonna become the fight capital of the world,” White told us recently.
TMZSports.com
“The stuff that we’re doing over there, the infrastructure that’s already been built, the stuff that we’re talking about doing, this place is gonna be a destination.”