Dana White and Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, announced Tuesday that extends their partnership with the UFC.
“By extending our partnership with @RiyadhSeason, we can continue to bring even more incredible events to Saudi Arabia." – @DanaWhite#RiyadhSeason | HE @Turki_Alalshikh pic.twitter.com/Sw4XaHL5bd
— UFC (@ufc) May 7, 2024
“This is a strong message to the market with this UFC partnership,” Alalshikh told ESPN. “We are working with everyone. My favorite is boxing, but we will try to make Riyadh one of the biggest cities around the world in MMA.”
Riyadh Season, an annual state-managed sports and entertainment festival that attracts sponsorships from some of the region’s most prominent companies, will sponsor UFC 306 on Sept. 14, the MMA promotion’s first event at The Sphere in Las Vegas. Alalshikh also announced that Riyadh Season signage will appear across UFC 306 branding and merchandise.
Impact
Alalshikh said an enhancement to Saudi Arabia’s existing agreement with WWE will be announced later this month. Specifically, Alalshikh is looking to bring January’s annual Royal Rumble or WWE’s top event, WrestleMania, to Saudi Arabia. “We will do big things with the UFC and TKO,” Alalshikh said. Alalshikh also announced that Riyadh Season signage will appear across UFC 306 branding and merchandise.
Riyadh Season is still looking to make the same size impact as they have on the boxing side of things with MMA. There is some big boxing bouts on the horizon with Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship on On May 25th in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and also Terence Crawford vs Israil Madrimov junior middleweight title fight in Los Angeles on August 3rd. Stay tuned for more updates on this new development.
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Robert LaMar is a writer for Dice City Sports. You can follow him on X via @RobertLaMar26
