On Thursday, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism raised eyebrows when it announced the three upcoming UFC events — UFC on ABC 1, UFC 257 and UFC on ESPN 20 — would have a limited number of fans in attendance. The events take place on January, 16, 20 and 23 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
The announcement was somewhat shocking since UFC president Dana White said after UFC 255, “I’ll stay here at the Apex instead of going somewhere where we can’t have a full crowd. What I’m not going to do is I’m not going to take a 10,000-seat arena and sell 5,000 tickets.