UFC 257 and January Fight Island events to have “limited number” of fans in attendance

For the first time since UFC 248 last March, fans will be in attendance at a UFC event.

Starting January 16 and ending with UFC 257, a limited number of fans will be in attendance at the Ethiad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Fight Island. The Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism announced that fans will be permitted on their social media accounts. Abu Dhabi did not announce how many fans will be allowed in the arena.

“The tripleheader will see three mega-fights, utilizing Abu Dhabi’s proven ‘safe zone’ concept to protect the health and safety of all delegates, spectators, crew, and media,” they tweeted.

The UFC kicks off 2021 on Fight Island and will break in the new Ethiad Arena as opposed to the Flash Forum where they have been holding events.

It is interesting to see that the UFC will have fans in attendance as White hasn’t been the biggest fan of having reduced capacity crowds. We have seen reduced crowds in boxing, NFL, and NBA, but the UFC has yet to do it.

“I’ll stay here at the Apex instead of going somewhere where we can’t have a full crowd,” White said after UFC 255. “What I’m not going to do is I’m not going to take a 10,000-seat arena and sell 5,000 tickets. I’d rather stay (in Las Vegas).”

In the main event of the January 16 event, Max Holloway looks to return to the win column against rising contender, Calvin Kattar. Holloway enters the fight as a near two-to-one favorite.

In the second Fight Island event on January 20, ranked UFC welterweights collide as Neil Magny faces Michael Chiesa in the main event.

Concluding the three-event stretch on Fight Island is UFC 257 which sees Conor McGregor’s highly-anticipated return against Dustin Poirier. The card also sees Michael Chandler’s UFC debut against Dan Hooker.

What do you make of fans being allowed in for the three-straight Fight Island events?