Enterprise Facility Synonymous With UFC Post-Pandemic

The UFC Apex first opened for business in the summer of 2019 in time for season three of Dana White’s Contender Series. At launch, the Apex facility had been expected to be utilized for live broadcasts of Contender Series on ESPN+, as well as future seasons of The Ultimate Fighter television series.

The Ultimate Fighter was on hiatus from production when the UFC Apex launched in June of 2019 after the UFC’s previous United States media rights deal with FOX Sports and FOX Sports 1 expired following a seven-year term the previous December. TUF would not return to the air until 2021 on ESPN+.

After the 2019 season of Contender Series, the UFC continued with business as usual for the rest of the calendar year and the start of the next, but the world as a whole turned upside-down on a fateful day. March 11, 2020 saw the World Health Organization declare the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic.

“WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we’re deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction,” Dr. Tedros Ahadnom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization Director-General mentioned in a press conference that winter’s day. “We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.”

UFC Apex Becomes Promotion’s Hub Center During COVID

Following a hiatus in competition following a scheduled UFC Fight Night card in Brasilia the following Saturday, closed to the general public, the promotion returned to action in Jacksonville, FL later that spring. Subsequent to a planned week off over the Memorial Day weekend in 2020, the Nevada State Athletic Commission ended its ban on combat sports in late May.

With NSAC clearing the way for competitive violence to return, the UFC Apex would become the de facto home for MMA’s No. 1 promotion. Save for a bye week for the Fourth of July holiday, the UFC kept on rolling with fight cards.

From May 9, 2020 until Dec. 19 of the same year, the UFC held 32 events in 34 weeks to close out the calendar, including a stretch of at least one card per week for 23 weeks in succession starting that July. Aside from a few limited residencies on Fight Island in the summer and fall, all cards were held inside the UFC Apex, including the fourth season of Dana White’s Contender Series.

UFC Apex Would Close to Audiences Despite Crowd Restrictions Coming Into Play

As 2020 gave way to 2021, crowd restrictions for sporting events would become a factor. Arenas would artificially limit maximum capacity based on health guidelines in response to COVID. UFC CEO Dana White wasn’t having any of that.

“I’ll stay here at the Apex instead of going somewhere where I can’t have a full crowd,” White said during the pandemic. “What I’m not going to do is I’m not going to take a 10,000-seat arena and sell 5,000 tickets.”

Due to White’s insistence on not traveling to arenas with reduced crowds in tow, the UFC Apex wouldn’t be open to the public for the better part of the pandemic. The UFC would gradually ease back into traditional arena shows beginning with UFC 261 in April of 2021, a show that had zero crowd restrictions.

Even with the UFC having returned to arena-based events on a regular basis in recent years, UFC Apex-based events are likely to stay on the UFC’s annual schedule of events for some time to come.

UFC Apex Important Part of MMA History

While public opinions on the UFC Apex vary, the facility in Enterprise, NV which also held the XFL Draft ahead of its 2023 relaunch season, along with WWE’s NXT Battleground in the summer of 2024, has become and will forever be a critical component to the UFC’s story, as well as the overall story of the history of the sport of MMA.

When COVID-19 forced sporting events to go on pause en masse in the late winter of 2020, leagues that would have normally been in-season had no idea when they’d be back.

Team sports leagues went on pause for several months, but the UFC was back in action in a matter of weeks. Had the UFC Apex not launched under a full year before the pandemic, the chain of events that ensued afterward with other organizations using the hub model would not have been possible.

People have been quick to think of the UFC Apex as an afterthought in the years following the pandemic, but the events at the facility are every bit as entertaining as those taking place in an arena. Further, because the Apex is owned by the organization’s parent company of TKO Group Holdings, it makes sense that the UFC would continue to hold shows there.

Final Thoughts

The UFC Apex’s increased use was born out of necessity brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. It’s since become a regular stop on the promotion’s yearly calendar.