Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium to host blockbuster UFC 243

A massive crowd is set for the UFC’s Melbourne return, with a mouth-watering fight between Aussie brawler Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya as its headliner. Here’s how you can score tickets.

Melbourne stands to generate more than $100m and attract a worldwide UFC audience of a billion people when it hosts the “biggest fight in Australian history” on October 6.

The Herald Sun can reveal a crowd of about 60,000 is expected to fill Marvel Stadium for UFC 243 a week after the AFL Grand Final.

It is the fourth time in five years UFC president Dana White will bring the Octagon to Melbourne.

Fight fanatics will watch Australia’s first UFC champion Robert ‘The Reaper’ Whittaker stage a middleweight title defence against Nigerian-born Kiwi Israel ‘The Last Stylebender’ Adesanya in a five-round championship bout at Docklands.

Robert Whittaker will defend his middleweight title at Marvel Stadium in October.

“This is the perfect fight at the perfect time with the two best athletes in the division,” White said.

“I am pumped to go back to Melbourne for this massive event.

“To have two champions in Whittaker and Adesanya fighting for the title on home turf is huge.

“This will be the biggest fight in Australian history.”

Melbourne owns the record for the largest MMA event in UFC history, when 56,214 watched Holly Holm demolish Ronda Rousey in 2015.

That fight generated $102m in economic benefit for Victoria with 40 per cent of ticket buyers from interstate and overseas.

Last February, tickets for UFC 234 at Rod Laver Arena sold out in eight minutes.

Melbourne’s UFC 243 blockbuster will be broadcast to 170 countries and territories worldwide in 40 different languages.

Whittaker said excitement was already building.

“My best UFC memories are from events in Melbourne and I can’t wait to make more,” Whittaker said.

“I’ve got some unfinished business there. UFC 243 here we go!”

Rising Kiwi superstar Israel Adesanya has vowed to knockout Whittaker in the bout.

Melbourne is no stranger to blockbuster showdowns such as the famous fight between Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm, in 2015. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Adesanya vowed to knockout Whittaker, just like Holm did to Rousey in the blockbuster 2015 fight at the then Etihad Stadium.

“ … I watched Rousey get head kicked by Holly Holm and the whole place went boom,” Adesanya said.

“I plan to do the same thing when I upset Robert Whittaker and become the new middleweight champion of the world.”

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UFC has presented 14 events in Australia since 2010, including sold out shows in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Gold Coast for a combined gross ticket sales of $44.9m.

Major events generate $1.8 billion in economic benefit annually for Victoria.

Acting Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Jaclyn Symes welcomed UFC 243.

“Our major events calendar is the best and most diverse in the country and Melbourne may well break another attendance record at Marvel Stadium come October,” Symes said.

“Massive draw cards like UFC 243: Whittaker vs Adesanya attract people from around Australia and the world, supporting thousands of jobs for the state.”

Marvel Stadium chief executive Michael Green said being able to host UFC 243 is “great testament to the diversity and versatility of the stadium”.

Tickets for UFC 243 Whittaker vs Adesanya go on sale on August 16. More information head to UFC.com.