MACAU – Saturday’s TUF China Finale drew an announced attendance of 6,000, which UFC executives classified as a sell-out.
Executive Vice President and Managing Director of UFC Asia Mark Fischer announced the total at the post-event news conference, which MMAjunkie attended. No live gate total was announced.
The TUF China Finale took place at The Venetian Macao’s CotaiArena. The complete card streamed on UFC Fight Pass.
The attendance figure was down from the UFC’s first trip to the same venue for UFC on FUEL TV 6 in November 2012. That event drew an announced attendance of 8,415 fans. That card also had a live gate total announced for it of more than $1.3 million.
At Saturday’s TUF China Finale, Dong Hyun Kim (19-2-1 MMA, 10-2 UFC) knocked out John Hathaway (17-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) with a vicious elbow in the main event. And in the co-feature, Zhang Lipeng (7-7 MMA, 1-0 UFC) took a controversial split decision from Wang Sai (6-5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) to win the “TUF: China” welterweight crown.
Following the card, Fischer said that the success of the promotion’s second trip to Macau already had led to the next two events in Asia being booked. The UFC will return to Macau on Aug. 23, then will make another trip to Japan on Sept. 20. Both events will be “Fight Night” cards.
