UFC Fight Night 75 draws lowest attendance for UFC in Saitama, company bullish on Japan

SAITAMA, Japan – Sunday’s “UFC Fight Night 75: Barnett vs. Hunt” event drew an announced attendance of 10,137 fans. As is usual with UFC events in Japan, no live gate was revealed.

UFC Vice President of International Business Development Joe Carr announced the figure at the evening’s post-event press conference, which MMAjunkie attended.

UFC Fight Night 75 took place at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The 10-fight aired on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2 on Saturday night in North America due to the time difference. Josh Barnett earned a unanimous decision over Roy Nelson in the event’s heavyweight headliner.

The event marked the UFC’s first event in Japan since September 2014’s UFC Fight Night 52, where Nelson also served in the headliner and suffered a knockout loss to Mark Hunt.

Carr said the UFC doesn’t yet have an announcement regarding future shows in the market but anticipates annual returns to Japan.

Meanwhile, Barnett – a longtime veteran of fighting on the Japanese scene – said the results were “pretty good” given current conditions and stressed the UFC will only be able to measure their success if they continue to invest in the market.

“Honestly, the only way you know how successful you were is to continue to have another event,” Barnett told MMAjunkie. “If people really enjoyed what they saw tonight, which I think a lot did, you’ll see the results in another fight card. That’s the only way to really judges that sort of success.”

The all-time list of announced attendance figures (no figures were announced at 2012’s “UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson” event, but attendance was estimated at 21,000) for the UFC’s visits to Saitama Super Arena now includes:

• 14,682 – “UFC on FUEL TV 8: Silva vs. Stann,” March 2013
• 12,395 – “UFC Fight Night 52: Hunt vs. Nelson,” September 2014
• 10,137 – “UFC Fight Night 75: Barnett vs. Hunt,” September 2015

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 75, check out the UFC Events section of the site.