The UFC is coming back to Dallas. American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas is set to host a UFC Fight Night card on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2027, marking the promotion's first visit to the city since 2022. The main event has not yet been announced.
The news was first reported by Dallas News, which noted that fans can register now for presale access at ufc.com/dallas ahead of the general public onsale, scheduled for Nov. 20. The outlet reported that the UFC will reveal the main event at a later date, meaning the full fight card is still unknown.
A Return Four Years in the Making
Per Dallas News, the UFC's last stop in the city was UFC 277 on July 30, 2022, which the outlet reported drew 19,442 fans to American Airlines Center and has been described as the highest-grossing single-night event in the arena's history. That card was billed as Peña vs. Nunes 2, according to UFC.com, with Julianna Peña defending her UFC bantamweight championship against Amanda Nunes, the fighter she had taken the belt from, as detailed by American Airlines Center. Nunes won by unanimous decision to recapture the title, per Dallas News. The same card also featured Brandon Moreno and Kai Kara-France battling for the interim UFC flyweight title, the arena's event page notes.
Dallas's History as a UFC Stop
Dallas has hosted the UFC multiple times over the past decade, including UFC 185 in 2015 and UFC 228 in 2018, according to Dallas News. The 2018 card, headlined by Tyron Woodley vs. Darren Till, also included a women's strawweight bout between Jessica Andrade and Karolina Kowalkiewicz, per American Airlines Center's event listing for that show.
UFC 211 landed in Dallas in 2017 and remains one of the city's bigger draws. That event pulled an announced attendance of 17,834 and a live gate of $2,662,645, according to MMA Junkie. The outlet's report added that UFC 211 was the promotion's fourth event in Dallas and its 14th in the state of Texas overall, ranking second in attendance among the Dallas shows it tracked.
By comparison, UFC 185 in 2015 drew 14,298 fans and a live gate of $2,155,630, the same MMA Junkie report shows. Those numbers give Dallas fans a sense of scale heading into the 2027 date, even though ticket prices, the fight card and broadcast details for the new event have not yet been released.
