10 cities we want to see the UFC at in 2023
By Alec Arritola
6. Miami, Florida
Dana White likes the state of Florida but does not seem to like holding his events in Miami. That is because there is some post-traumatic stress from the infamous UFC 42: Sudden Impact on Apr. 25, 2003. The first UFC event in Florida, and the only one in Miami, UFC 42 had an attendance of 6,700 in the 21,000-person capacity American Airlines Arena (now FTX Arena).
UFC 42 featured Matt Hughes vs. Sean Sherk and Pete Spratt vs. Robbie Lawler and marked the first UFC appearance by future middleweight champion Rich Franklin. Joe Rogan provided the lead commentary for this event and was joined by color commentator Phil Baroni with further analysis by Eddie Bravo.
Hopefully, president White will consider Miami again after a 20-year hiatus, as stars like Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington have made Miami a prime money-making battleground. Hundreds of professional MMA fighters call South Florida home, and many international fighters relocate here to train and compete.
South Florida is home to some of the best MMA gyms on the planet, including American Top Team, Sanford MMA / Kill Cliff FC, and MMA Masters. Dozens of UFC stars have trained in these gyms over the years, including Tyron Woodley, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Jorge Masvidal, Glover Teixeira, Amanda Nunes, Kayla Harrison, Thiago Alves, Wilson Gouveia, Yoel Romero, Dustin Poirier, Colby Covington, Vitor Belfort, Rashad Evans, Robbie Lawler, Luke Rockhold, and Kamaru Usman.
Many Florida-based coaches were integral to the spread of mixed martial arts in the early days of the UFC. Influential coaches like Dan Lambert, Marcus “Conan” Silveira, Marcelo Silveira, Ricardo Liborio, Mike Brown, Steve Mocco, Cesar Carneiro, Daniel Valverde, Henri Hooft, Greg Jones, Jason Strout, Kami Barzini, and Corey Peacock were critical factors in the development of modern MMA.