While the Australian fanbase has been one of the strongest and most vocal in terms of internal UFC audiences and attendees, UFC Perth is struggling to get fans in the door.
A recent broadcast report from 7 News Australia stated that the venue of this weekend's card, RAC Arena, in Perth, is only at about half capacity -- a poor number in comparisons to sellouts in previous UFC events across the country over the recent years.
"The WA [Western Australian] government's financial investment in cage fighting is in question tonight with poor ticket sales to a UFC event this weekend," 7 News Australia's Rick Ardon said. "UFC Fight Night is being staged at RAC Arena, but the venue is only about half full, and tickets are now being discounted."
RAC Arena Showing Poor Sales For UFC Perth
The last UFC event to take place in Australia was UFC 312 in February, held at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. A sold-out crowd of 18,537 saw Dricus Du Plessis score a decision win over Sean Strickland to retain the UFC middleweight title. The last event held in Perth prior to this weekend's card was UFC 305 in August 2024, which saw Du Plessis retain via submission over Israel Adesanya.
The sales for this coming weekend's card, however, have been, in the words of reporter Geoff Parry, "disappointing, not the sellout of previous years."
Andy Hickey confirmed the news on social media, calling UFC Perth, "easily the worst selling event at this point post-COVID" and noting that ticket prices have dropped to $167 AUS.
Yahoo Sports points to a number of factors for the poor sales, including the number of notable names on this weekend's card being lackluster, as well as injury forcing native Junior Tafa out of the originally scheduled co-main event against Ibo Aslan.
Yahoo also notes, however, that the UFC will profit from the event off site fees alone, which may mean the UFC won't be too bothered by poor ticket sales for this outing.
The UFC signed a deal with the Western Australian tourism board earlier this year to bring a number of events to Perth in the coming years.