The UFC is taking their vow of global dominance seriously. After announcing the opening of a Canadian branch, UFC President, Dana White, has his sights set on something bigger. A lot bigger.

“Right now, what we’ve used to go into Europe and even Australia is our U.K. office. But we’re looking right now, and here I go jumping ahead of myself and saying stuff before we do it, but we’re going to open an office in China.”

Home to over 1 billion people, China represents the largest market of potential customers in the world. While communist rule dictates practically every facet of their citizen’s lives, the UFC believes that mixed martial arts has a place in Chinese culture.

“The hardest part in launching this sport and launching the UFC was getting the U.S. done. We’ve got everybody done now except for New York, and we’re on the budget in June. The rest of the world – in Asia, Asia understands martial arts. They’ve been practicing martial arts for thousands of years. It’s going to be a lot easier. We’re there now. Lorenzo has been in China for the last 10 days, and we’re going to make it happen.”

Having established broadcasting deals with Inner Mongolia Television and Sohu.com, the UFC has already introduced their product to the Asian country; however, White has plans to vastly expand that coverage. In addition to hosting live shows in China, a future version of The Ultimate Fighter is on the horizon.

“‘The Ultimate Fighter’ is what really kicks it off, and you build stars in all these different regions. We’re working right now on ‘The Ultimate Fighter Middle East’ and ‘The Ultimate Fighter Canada’ that will be first. Then either before one of those or right at the same time will be ‘The Ultimate Fighter China.’”

After China, the UFC hopes to venture into India.

“In India, there’s 300 million males aged 18-24. That’s more people than are actually in the U.S.”

As White continues to expand the UFC’s empire, the logistics of hosting events in a timely fashion has yet to be vetted.

“This is is a work in progress. We bought this company, and we were doing five fights a year. If you would have told me six or seven years ago that we’d be doing 34 fights a year, I would have said, ‘That’s impossible. It’ll never happen. That’s crazy.’ We’re probably going to end up doing 100 fights a year. We could have a show [in the U.S.] on Saturday night and five more going on in five other countries. That’s what’s going to eventually happen. It’s figuring this thing out, putting the pieces together, and like I said, it’s a work in progress. But I’m telling you guys, I said it years ago, and I’ve been saying it – how big this thing is going to be. I think people are now really starting to realize how big this thing is really going to be.”

With such ambitious plans in the works, it appears that the UFC is determined to become the number one sport around the world. While it may take some time, the organization is working hard to make it an actuality.

“The NBA is over in China right now, and there’s a lot of people that are in to the NBA, but here in the U.S., in my opinion, there’s nothing bigger than the NFL. People that don’t even watch football watch the Super Bowl at the end of the season. I’ve been saying for years that we’re going to be bigger than the NFL, and people were laughing at me. Well, it’s starting to look like a reality now.”

(Source: MMA Junkie)