Paris, France — After a successful return to Paris with a record-setting gate and sold-out attendance, UFC Senior Vice President of International and Content David Shaw was bullish on the promotion’s future in France.
“We’re hugely grateful for the response that’s happened here in France,” Shaw told media outlets including Cageside Press following Saturday’s UFC Paris. “I think last time we were here in Paris, 70% of the tickets were bought by people outside Paris, which shows that love for MMA is all around the country. So we’re thrilled, we couldn’t be happier with the way that things played out.”
Shaw added that in a phone call to colleagues back in Las Vegas, he was told those watching could tell how loud the French fans were on the broadcast, with cheering and chants and singing. “It made a really powerful statement. Will other European countries rally around that? I’m sure they will in time, but this is a pretty special situation right now.”
Which means that the UFC ideally will keep France as an annual destination, much like England.
“Yeah, we’d love to. We said for many years as we were going through the legalization process and meeting with different constituents around the country, this is a destination we want to be in every year.”
Next year, however, could be “a different story with the Olympics and Para-Olympics which goes really through September, which is typically when we’re here,” noted Shaw. “So it’s going to be a bit of a different puzzle for us next year, but absolutely it’s top of the list for us to come here every year.”
That could also mean expanding outside of Paris, where the UFC made its debut in 2022. Both shows to date have been held in the city’s Accor Arena.
“Yes. We’ve had a lot of conversations especially this week about the other destinations we could go. And if we’re able to increase the output for France by more than just one event, there are a few different cities that we would consider,” said Shaw. “We talked about Marseilles, which I think would be a good destination, and there’s a few others that are on the list. No decisions yet, but actually we talked about that a lot this week. So who knows. We’ll get the events schedule sorted out for 2024, and we’ll get back to you.”
The stunning showing by French fighters on Saturday makes it easy to see the sort of success other European fighters could have at home. Ilia Topuria stands out, with ties to all of Spain, Germany, and Georgia.
Seeing fighters like Topuria break out does motivate the promotion to target new territories, admitted Shaw. “Yeah. The flat answer is, it does. Every time there’s some breakout performance or someone seems to be climbing the ranks, Dana [White, UFC President]’s like ‘we’ve got to go to that country.’ We’ve got to take advantage. It’s one of the reasons we had the PPV with Leon in March. It’s like, we’ve got an opportunity to take an athlete to their home country at a point in their career which we can make the greatest impact.” Shaw also noted that, since the UFC doesn’t do PPVs on European time, such a move requires a lot of negotiation both internally and with partners. But still, live events are different, “and we want to take advantage of those opportunities.”
Watch the full UFC Paris post-fight press conference with David Shaw above.
