Perth Arena will host UFC 221 in Feb. 2018, UFC president Dana White has announced. In a coup for Western Australia, an enthusiastic White indicated that a lot of work had gone into nailing down the event.
"On Sunday Feb. 11 UFC 221 will take place at Perth Arena and be seen live on pay-per-view around the world, and trust me when I tell you we have waited a very long time for this," White said.
"For many years, people have been telling me 'you have to go to Perth, you have to see Perth, you have to put on an event on in Perth'. Now after all this time we are finally coming to Perth."
UFC Interim Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker was on hand for the video announcement, and he said he was excited about the prospect of the UFC coming to Perth.
"It is amazing to have the UFC to come here to Perth... it is great for Australian Mixed Martial Arts and great for the sport and it is going to be great for Perth to have such a world-wide event, through pay-per-view, hosted here," Whittaker said.
"This is a very important week for me, I find out the winner of the Georges St-Pierre and Michael Bisping fight, my next opponent, and if I can drag them back to here to defend the title on home soil then all the merrier."
The card for UFC 221 is yet to be decided, but White assured that it wouldn't disappoint.
"I promise you I am going to bring you an amazing card for this historic night," he said.