The UFC has confirmed its return to Australia for the first time since 2019, with the promotion heading back to Perth, Western Australia, in February next year.
UFC 284 will be staged at Perth's RAC Arena on Sunday Feb 12. [Saturday Feb. 11, ET] in what will be the second pay-per-view event of 2023.
Perth last hosted a UFC event in 2018 when Curtis Blaydes defeated Mark Hunt via unanimous decision in a heavyweight bout, while Yoel Romero recorded a devastating knockout of Luke Rockhold after the Cuban had missed weight.
The UFC returned to Australia the following year when Israel Adesanya claimed the middleweight title with a second-round knockout of local favourite Robert Whittaker in front of a record UFC crowd at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne.
UFC 251 was set to be staged in Perth in June 2020, only for the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to force the card's cancellation and make other Australian events across 2020 and 2021 prohibitive as the country employed strict border controls and various states were put into lockdown.
Alexander Volkanovski, ESPN's No.1 ranked pound-for-pound fighter and UFC featherweight title holder, was on hand for the announcement in Perth on Tuesday [AEDT], but it is unclear as to whether the Australian will headline the UFC 284 card.
Volkanovski has not fought on home soil since he became featherweight champion in 2020, and he has long craved the opportunity to fight in front of his fans Down Under after he was originally booked to headline the UFC 251 card in 2020.
Volkanovski did earlier Tuesday confirm he was the back-up fighter for the lightweight title showdown between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev at UFC 280 on Oct. 22.