THIRTY-TWO months have passed since the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) last held a live event in Singapore, and the American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company is eager to mark its long-awaited return to these shores with a bang.

On Jun 12, the Las Vegas-based organisation is staging UFC 275 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, with the venue close to being a sell-out with nearly 11,000 spectators in attendance. The priciest seats at S$2,888 have all been snapped up, and as of press time, only a limited number of S$58 tickets are still for sale.

The show begins bright and early that Sunday morning at 6.30 am as it is a major pay-per-view event that caters for a global TV audience, especially for fans catching the action during the evening prime-time slot in the United States.

This is the first time that UFC has held a pay-per-view in Singapore, with the Lion City being just the third city outside the US (the others are London and Abu Dhabi) to host a live event since the start of the pandemic.

From 2014 to 2019, there were a total of 4 UFC Fight Nights held in Singapore. These are smaller-scale shows that usually feature up-and-coming fighters, although there have been some top stars as well including the likes of Holly Holm, Ben Askren and Colby Covington.

At UFC 275, the signature bout sees Brazil’s Glover Teixeira defend his light heavyweight championship against Czech fighter Jiri Prochazka. In the co-main event, Kyrgyzstan-born Valentina Shevchenko puts her flyweight title on the line when she faces Brazilian Taila Santos. Ahead of the big day, there is the Road to UFC tournament in 4 weight divisions, with 20 bouts taking place at the Indoor Stadium on Jun 9 and 10.

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Over Zoom, BT Weekend spoke to UFC’s senior vice-president and head of Asia Kevin Chang, a Shanghai-based Honolulu native who joined the company at the end of 2010. This interview has been edited slightly for brevity.

How different is it now when it comes to putting together a big live show like this?

It’s certainly different, and we’re really excited to be back. We’ve been fully producing our own events for the last 2-and-a-half years since the pandemic hit. Apart from the US, we’ve done many shows in Abu Dhabi, and we were in London in March this year.

There are, of course, some operational differences and challenges in place due to the pandemic and the need for safe management measures. But it’s good that we are allowed to run our shows at full capacity, now that Singapore has opened up over the past couple of months. There are still Covid-19 testing protocols in place, although these are not as restrictive as they could have been, say, compared to 6 months ago when we were in the planning stage. Overall, I’d say we are confident of a smooth and successful event.

What’s your take on the appetite for live sports content these days?

We will fill the Indoor Stadium to capacity - it’s as many seats as we can get in there, so we’ll be somewhere close to 11,000 that day. This will be the largest combat sports event in Singapore since the pandemic. We have fans flying in from all over the world too - Australia, Japan, South Korea, a few from China too, and other parts of Asia, because this is our first pay-per-view event in Asia for over a decade.

Singapore is a small market, so what’s the potential for growth as far as the UFC brand is concerned?

This is a small market but it is a powerful and influential one that sets the trends for all of South-east Asia. From a commercial perspective, when you get major presenting partners and sponsors such as (UFC 275 presenting partner) airasia Super App, it just creates this energy. I see a big opportunity for us in Singapore, with a growing and sophisticated fan base that’s just hungry for UFC content.

We don’t intend for the Jun 12 event to be a one-off. Our aim is to continue this trend of bringing major events to Singapore on a regular basis. There are only a handful of cities that we visit every year, among them New York, London and Abu Dhabi. And it’s a possible that this could be the plan for Singapore too, to return every year.

Any plans to increase the number of Asian fighters on the current 600-strong roster?

It’s definitely growing. I’d say we’re a little under 10 per cent of our total roster, and we would like to get it up to 10 per cent quite soon - that would make it 50-plus athletes from Asia. We’re starting to see a change in demographics from where everyone comes from. You would think the bulk would be from the US, but actually more than half now hail from outside America. We do want Asia to represent a big part of that.

Are you a big sports fan?

I’ve been a UFC fan for the last 15 years. I used to work for the National Football League in the US, so I follow American football a lot. I also enjoy watching basketball, tennis and European football. My days of playing competitive sports are long over, so now it’s more of maintaining my fitness. I’m fortunate enough to work out at the UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai, and the coaches there help me to achieve my fitness goals.

Limited seats for UFC 275 are available at Ticketmaster.sg.