Although lady luck has never been on the UFC’s side when it comes to legalizing the sport in the state of New York, UFC President Dana White seems as sure as ever that UFC 194 will be taking place on December 5, 2015 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
On Thursday, White told the folks at Newsday that the company has reserved a date in the venue — December 5th — for a potential event at the world-famous MSG.
“We have a date,” White said, reinforcing his comments from last month’s world tour stop in Manhattan.
While no date has yet to be publicly announced, according to the UFC calendar, UFC 194 is scheduled to take place on December 5th at “a location to be announced.”
According to one Newsday source, Dec. 5 is the specific date that UFC officials have reserved in hopes that MMA gets legalized in the state of New York in time to begin promoting a 12/5 mega-pay-per-view event at MSG.
“Obviously, it’d be a bad-ass card,” White said. “[If] we come to New York, we’re going to blow it out of the water.”
If plans on a UFC card at MSG come to fruition, the company has no shortage of New York natives to help round out the fight card. In addition to Baldwin’s Chris Weidman, the current UFC Middleweight Champion, and Ithaca’s Jon Jones, the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, White points out that it’s every fighters’ dream to compete inside the world-famous arena.
“You know we’re going to have a lot of New Yorkers fighting on the New York card,” White said. “We do that in every market we go in. Plus, the first ever at the Garden, I mean, some of these guys’ dreams are to fight at the Garden.”
