While most of the world is locked down during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, the Ultimate Fighting Championship's frontman Dana White was committed to delivering MMA events to the world. The challenge was finding a location suitable to the strict conditions placed upon the world since most everything was locked down. Millions of people are in various states of lock-down around the world and entire industries have been closed or severely restricted. Using tremendous creativity and leaning on previous relations with the United Arab Emirates the UFC arrived at an elegant and exciting solution which was the inception of "Fight Island".

The UFC's Fight Island launched in the capital city of Abu Dhabi, UAE in July, 2020. The UFC was simply unable to continue it's normal operations and fight schedule in the USA as travel restrictions limited travel into the US and 100s of international MMA athletes were unable to enter the country due to travel restrictions and extremely limited entry into the US.
Fight Island's inaugural event was a huge success and was quickly followed by a second event on September 6th, 2020 which consisted of a major PPV event between Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa. The 3rd UFC UAE Fight Island event is schedule for Saturday, October 24th between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje.

Dana white tried multiple different solutions and potential venues for UFC events but kept running into regulatory roadblocks and impossible travel restrictions for fighters and UFC staff. In an effort to keep the UFC fight schedule moving forward and committed to delivering Mixed Martial Arts combat sporting events to a demanding global audience of fight fans, Dana White eventually announced that the UFC had secured the rights to an undisclosed private island to host the fights during the global pandemic.

The secret location, only referred to as "Fight Island" was backed up by the UFC's legal team filing for multiple patents for related terms as well as the production and sale of Fight Island merchandise on UFC's official online E-commerce website. The location was eventually disclosed to be Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Yas Island has incredible brand new infrastructure coupled with what many consider to be the worlds most organized approach to dealing with covid-19 testing and quarantine policy making Yas Island the ultimate location for the UFC's Fight Island concept. Dana White promised the world an "Octagon on the beach" and the UFC team worked closely with The Emirates to make this vision a reality.

Yas Island is also home to Ferrari World as well as Formula One's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It's also home to a brand new MMA stadium and the worlds largest indoor climbing gym. In 2019 Yas Island was home to the UFC 242: Khabib vs. Poirier was part of a 5 year partnership between the UFC and Abu Dhabi. Due to quarantine restrictions, no fans will be able to attend any UFC Fight Island events and for now only UFC staff, fighters, Yas Island workers will be allowed into the restricted Yas Island / Fight Island quarantine zone.

UFC Fight Island Event Schedule in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Yas Island:

Sept: 26: UFC 253: Adesanya vs. Costa
Oct. 3: UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Aldana
Oct. 10: UFC Fight Night: Moraes vs. Sandhagen
Oct. 17: UFC Fight Night: Ortega vs. The Korean Zombie
Oct. 24: UFC 254: Khabib vs. Gaethje