Western Australia gets its first UFC event with February pay-per-view card

The UFC’s long-awaited debut in Western Australia is finally official, with promotion execs announcing that UFC 221 will take place in Perth on Sunday, February 11.

Due to the time change, the pay-per-view event will air on Saturday, Feb. 10, in its traditional timeslot in the U.S.

Former UFC exec Joe Carr  this past summer told MMAjunkie a pay-per-view event could be coming to Western Australia, which recently legalized MMA following a longtime ban on fighting in a caged surface.

“It’s very difficult to bring pay-per-views or our highest caliber cards (to foreign markets) because you’re doing it in the middle of the night there,” Carr said. “We did Manchester with Michael Bisping last year, but that’s an irregularity, right? That’s not the rule. Whereas in Australia, it’s easy for us to bring pay-per-views because you can do them Sunday there, and it’s still Saturday night primetime (in the U.S.). There’s no conflict.

“It doesn’t matter where the feed is coming from, as long as it’s Saturday night in our timeslot. Even when we thinking about Perth next year, beginning of the year, should that be a pay-per-view? That’s on the table.”

Opened in 2012, Pert Arena is a 15,000-seat venue that currently plays host to the Perth Wildcats of Australia’s National Basketball League

For more on UFC 221, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.