UFC exec Dave Shaw on Leon Edwards' home loss, international plans, Aspinall-Jones and more

USA Today

24-03-2025

LONDON – Following the promotion's return to London for UFC Fight Night 255 on Saturday, executive Dave Shaw spoke to members of the media at The O2.
Shaw, the promotion's senior vice president of international operations, talked about more regular events in Europe, Sean Brady's win over Leon Edwards, Molly McCann's retirement and more.
On the London crowd
All in all, nice return to London. You had the successful event in Manchester last year, so it's nice to get back. It seems like this March date works out really well for our calendar. It's nice to be back. We had a ton of our European broadcasters that came in to watch. I thought the fights were great overall.
On Brady's performance
It was nice to see a really just dominant performance by Brady. Really interesting – I didn't think it was going to go that way, and I guess neither did the crowd. But it was pretty impressive – pretty impressive performance.
On planning U.K. events
We don't base it on the fighters. This is like, you know, calendar set 6 to 9 months out. We're always trying to be in the UK twice a year. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. Also driven by the other events that we want to do throughout Europe throughout the Middle East, North Africa. But typically we enter every year trying to get to the. UK twice. It's possible (we'll be back in 2025).
On Tom Aspinall vs. Jon Jones
What Dana (White) and the matchmakers are always doing is just letting fighters be themselves. And so if they want to jump in the narrative and continue to push it forward, it doesn't hurt. They're going to do whatever they want to do. They're not going to get anyone telling them not to do that type of thing. What do I think? I think it's great. I think everyone's really interested in seeing this fight. I'm not sure when it's going to come together. I think Dana was dropping some hints that news could be coming soon, but in terms of timing, nothing to to mention right now.
On Molly McCann's retirement
She mentioned at the end in her retirement speech she might want to play a role (in the company), and you look at some of the athletes that we've got in different areas around the world (after) their UFC fighting career and the impact that they make. I mean there's no better example than (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira in Brazil. The guy is out there every week – he's building houses, he's raising money, he's doing clinics with underprivileged youth. I think there's a real role for a lot of athletes that come and have a successful career, either on a global basis or a local basis. They want to give back, they want to use the skills that they've got, the profile that they've built to make an impact on the community, to help continue to build our brand. Oftentimes, it comes in the form of teaching. All these athletes have been taught well all their lives, and for them to now give back (is big). So in terms of an ambassador role, I think during her career she couldn't have done much better, but the opportunity to now springboard into something that's more meaningful for the rest of her life, I think it's something that we really need to build around.
On potential for prime time events in France
We've done a number of these pay per views either in the middle of the night, in certain circumstances. We've done them in local prime time. We talked extensively about the limitations that we've got to do pay-per-views in non-traditional broadcast window time for North America. It works in Australia because it's a Sunday afternoon event. To do an event in Europe or the Middle East pay-per-view, that is more challenging for us. Having said that, we just talked about Manchester. So could we do it? Yes. We haven't looked at some of the limitations that we might have from a venue or an ordinance perspective. Sometimes you just can't get a permit. You need to think about transportation. There's a lot of things that go into being able to have an event, a pay-per-view event, in the middle of the night. So I think the main card in Manchester last summer was at 3 a.m. So the main fight didn't really walk till 5:30. Can you do that in Paris? I'm not sure if we even asked the question. If that's the case, we might. It's been big gates, always sold out three events in a row with arguably one of the most raucous crowds that we've got. Manon (Fiorot from France is) competing in Montreal. WE hhope to see Benoit Saint Denis come back at some point soon. So could you fill (an arena in the middle of the night). The necessary athletes to sell enough tickets in the middle of the night at a pay-per-view average ticket price, I think you could.
On Europe's Oktagon promotion and its success
It's definitely encouraging. We've heard a lot about the RTL (broadcast group in Europe). I think they broadcast events on RTL. We just renewed our deal in Germany and they talked a lot about growth of the sport and citing what Oktagon has been doing, which I think is great. What does it do for us? Obviously it helps generate a number of local athletes, and so the pipeline is stronger for athletes in those particular regions. It galvanizes a fan base, helps make broadcast and media values increase and it shows that there's demand from a ticket sales perspective. So for us, it's extremely encouraging – not for 2025, but 2026 the next likely window that we consider, and that's partly to do with the broadcast situation that we've got in the U.S.
On an event in Spain
Here's the situation with Spain. We've got to find the right destination. We've talked about it a lot – we're not going to venues that don't have a roof. It doesn't make any sense for athletes, for the product, for the integrity of the product. We want the playing field to be equal and not have the same kind of weather variables that you'd have in football or soccer or golf or whatever else. So challenging for us, if there's a venue that we can go to, then we'll continue to look at Spain. Having said that, there's very strong interest on Dana's front, so we've just got to figure out where to go.
On Ilia Topuria's lightweight future
It's all over social, right? It's very busy – (he's going to be a) new era, new persona. I'm not sure what he's got cooking up, but it sounds like he's got something interesting. I don't know (who he's going to fight). It's not up to me. I don't know the answer to that question. I'm sure they've got a long list of guys. I'm sure he's got a long list of guys. I think if he's got a formula he's bringing to market and he's already publicizing pretty, pretty heavily, I'm sure it's not just about him. I'm sure it's about the pathway he wants to (be on) – what weight class, what belt, and what he wants to achieve in this new chapter.
On an event in Africa
We've got a pretty extensive relationship with the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi and the way that we manage our relationship with them is the perspective – not just Abu Dhabi. The perspective is the region, and the region is Middle East, North Africa. So in working with them, there's a number of different countries that we've identified as destinations for us over the next few years. We've been in Abu Dhabi and we've been in Riyadh. But we've been thinking about Bahrain, we've been thinking about Qatar, we've been thinking about Jordan, we've been thinking about a few different countries there – an order of operations to it. So when it comes to North Africa specifically, nothing to disclose at the moment. But I think continental Africa for us is really compelling and we've been talking for a while about whether it's South Africa or Rwanda, or do we go to a French-speaking country. There's a few different options. There's a lot of logistics at play. We've got to have the right athletes.
On new markets
It's a massive priority. There's so much excitement unlocking new markets and you don't get to do it that often. We did a few years ago in France and it's been such a great ride. There's a few other countries that we are trying to get to this year, and hopefully in the next few weeks we've got some announcements. But it's a really special moment because there's obviously the pent-up demand. There's this whole concept of giving back to the fans that have been asking for it for a while. So I think for us it's really meaningful, and then you've got athletes who invariably are saying, 'Hey, you've got to come to my country, and here's how we can make it work. We've got connections. The government there are sponsors that you guys can reach out to.' So the best advocates in many cases are the athletes. The athletes play a major role in that. For me personally and for, you know, the incredible teams that UFC has in seven different offices that we've got around the world, it's important to them, too. It's something we're really pushing for, but it's not as easy as trying to book the O2 or trying to get back to Paris.
On the new old gloves
I think, Dana (White), Sean (Shelby), Mick (Maynard), Hunter (Campbell), they spoke to a lot of different athletes and everyone seems to want to go back to the old gloves. So that's the plan until it's not, and there'll be other gloves. But I think for now we're going to continue to roll with those.
On a return to Amsterdam
The two events that we've had in Rotterdam have been excellent. Amsterdam is always tough and challenging because the permit process in Amsterdam is really onerous. It's very difficult for us to get a permit, if you can believe it. (Netherlands) for us in '25, likely not a possibility. 2026, we're confident that as we go through the U.S. media rights deal and we've got a new set of terms with either our current partner in ESPN or whoever is interested in partnering with us in the U.S. and potentially other countries around the world, the intention – and we're being very deliberate about this – is to have an increased number of prime time events that we can have throughout Europe and the Middle East and China, for that matter every year. There's limitations on what we can do now, and the intention for us is to make sure that we've got a higher ceiling on the number of events, a greater number of events that we can do in prime time. That's when we'll be able to think about Germany and getting back to Prague and, of course, Netherlands.
On a return to Poland
I think we've had some pretty successful gates. We've had a number of successful events. There's no shortage of athletes. There's also a number of destinations we go to. If we've got a limitation on how many events that we can do in prime time, and we don't really want to do middle-of-the-night events, Paris, London, some of the destinations where we've either got an increased number of athletes, we've got our teams here, we've got major media deals, those typically are higher priority destinations. London is a destination for us. I can't remember the last time we've done a press conference with this many media. Guaranteed that a significant number (of ticket sales) were outside of the U.K. It's the destination – it's easy for people to come to, o it makes it easier to sell tickets. We've got a really healthy relationship with Pulsat and a number of other partners in Poland, and it will be on the list for 2026 and beyond.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie's event hub for UFC Fight Night 255.