Qatar is for the UFC B-Team and Side Hustles
Doha is not Abu Dhabi; it's not Riyadh; it's Perth -- with a bigger site fee.
Three things of interest to the average UFC fan happened at UFC Qatar over the weekend.
For the advanced UFC fan, that tally goes up to four. We cater to smarks here at The MMA Draw, so we’ll include all four in our post-event roundup.
Before we get to that, a couple of notes about the business side of UFC Qatar.
Abu Dhabi Gets a PPV, Qatar Gets a Fight Night
Last month, the UFC was in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), just under 200 miles to the east of the Doha suburb in Qatar where Saturday’s Fight Night was held.
Abu Dhabi got Dana White. Qatar got Hunter Campbell.
Abu Dhabi got a heavyweight title fight. Qatar got a welterweight contender bout.
There has been no public reporting on what site fees (if any) each city paid.
It seems like Abu Dhabi would have paid more because they got a much bigger event, but it’s entirely possible Qatar had to pay a premium.
That’s not complicated or anything.
The UAE has had a long and close relationship with the UFC, one that predates the promotion’s purchase by WME Group (formerly Endeavor).
In 2010, Flash Entertainment (a UAE-owned entertainment company) bought 10% of the UFC from its then-owners, Zuffa LLC.
In 2020, the UAE hosted “Fight Island” and allowed the UFC to put on fights when virtually the entire world was shut down due to the COVID pandemic.
That saved not only the UFC but Ari Emanuel’s entire empire, which lost over half a billion dollars in 2020 and might have collapsed if the UFC hadn’t been able to put on fights that year.
Qatar, on the other hand, has only started throwing money at Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro recently, when their state investment authority was one of the key investors in a multi-billion-dollar investment round for their new company, MARI (Mark + Ari), which will specialize in the live events business (other players include Redbird Capital and the Saudi-linked Apollo Global Management).
Thanks for helping Ari and Mark, and their new side hustle, Qatar!
That’s enough of that. Let’s look at the fight card.
Headbutt at the Weigh-Ins
Top Lightweight Contender Arman Tsarukyan nearly ruined everything for himself by head-butting opponent Dan Hooker at the ceremonial weigh-ins.
Dana White didn’t bother to make the trip, so UFC matchmaker #1 Sean Shelby (above, in local dress code) was stuck as the man between the fighters.
I don’t know whether or not 56-year-old Dana could have prevented the contact, but Sean Shelby looked rather helpless.
As for UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell, he was hiding way in the back and was never a threat to do anything to prevent a fracas.
It was a stupid asshole move on Tsarukyan’s part that gained him nothing and could have easily cut Hooker and forced a cancellation of the bout.
But fortunately, Hooker wasn’t cut and the fight went on as booked.
We’ll come back to Tsarukyan before this is over.
Kyoji Horiguchi Got the Finish and Called for a Title Shot
This is the category for the smarks, so you filthy casuals can scroll on down to the next entry.
The RIZIN multi-division champion moved back to flyweight, so naturally the UFC buried him at the bottom of a six-fight main card that aired in the early afternoon in North America.
He dominated the bout and got a submission finish in the third round.
Horiguchi was originally supposed to fight in, all places, Baku for the UFC debut in Azerbaijan. UFC’s strange and curious track record of booking Japanese talent remains a mystery. Instead of headlining RIZIN at Saitama Super Arena, Horiguchi landed a big return win in UFC and is not wasting time in demanding big fights.
Then he called for a title shot against champ Alexandre Pantoja, despite the two being teammates at American Top Team in Florida. Pantoja has an upcoming battle with Joshua Van at UFC 323 in a couple of weeks.
Sounds good to me. Book it, Mick Maynard.
Ian Machado Garry Is Once Again a Pretender to the Throne
Garry notched a decision win over ex-champ Belal Muhammad and is now able to get back to where he belongs — talking shit about a UFC Welterweight title shot he hasn’t earned and has no chance of winning.
Garry didn’t exactly piece up Muhammad, but he did neutralize the man and earned the decision — since we’re still not into deducting points for eye pokes, that is.
Right on cue, UFC announcer Jon Anik is preaching the case for Garry to get his UFC title shot:
Since Shavkat Rakhmonov is injured and had to bow out of the title shot he earned by man-handling Garry last year, the conversation is passing him by.
Well, the conversation that’s defined by Ian Garry talking smack, that is. Now he’s getting into fights with Khamzat Chimaev and cutting fresh promos. Chimaev promptly took the bait.
There is zero chance current UFC Welterweight champ Islam Makhachev will be losing any sleep over an Ian Garry bout.
Now, a Shavkat Rakhmonov fight, that’s a different story. However, knee injuries take time to heal, so fans might have to wait.
Arman Tsarukyan Has Earned a Title Shot (Again)
The main event saw Tsarukyan outclass, utterly dominate, and submit the overmatched Dan Hooker in the second round.
Post-fight, Tsarukyan called for a title shot against Ilia Topuria.
Even though Ariel Helwani wants Paddy Pimblett to be Ilia Topuria’s first title defense on the Paramount debut, he’s now backtracking.
It was all compliments for Dan Hooker after the loss.
“Dan is a good fighter, a good man, but he’s not on that level. He took a chance. He got the money. But I want to say thank you for him, too because if he didn’t take this fight, I couldn’t fight this year and next year probably I’m not going to get the title. But because of him, I’m here. I got the win. I got money. I got everything. I just want to say thank you to him, too.”
After the last-minute fight cancellation for UFC 311 at the Intuit Dome, can UFC fully trust Arman Tsarukyan to show up 100% mentally and physically for such a major title fight? He’s an incredible athlete with some amazing moves.
I’m here for Topuria vs. Tsarukyan for 2026, but first…
There are two more ESPN+ UFC cards before the end of the year, including a PPV at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and one last ESPN APEX warehouse card.
We’ll be here to cover the denouement of the UFC-ESPN partnership, which has shaped the Endeavor WME Group era UFC, and we’ll be here for the Paramount Plus era that will kick off in January.
The chances of Alex Pereira vs. Carlos Ulberg as a key fight for the UFC on Paramount debut are growing. UFC’s Paramount campaign certainly feels a lot less climatic than, say, their transition from Spike TV to FOX with Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos.
Nate Wilcox founded Bloody Elbow in 2007 and sold it in 2024
"Smarker" banished to Paramount "Poor." MMA draw portal to elusive reality !