Flash Entertainment yesterday specified that it has purchased a 10 per cent stake in the Las Vegas firm that owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

With this Abu Dhabi has entered the world of mixed martial arts.

It will be on 10th April when the UAE’s first event, UFC 112 will be staged. The contest, which will most likely be organized outdoors and at night, will be hosted by the Emirates Palace hotel and Yas Marina Circuit, who have come forward as early contenders as venue to host the event.

The financial details of the deal were not disclosed and it marks the latest chapter in a remarkable turnaround in the fighting league’s fortunes.

Before becoming the increasingly mainstream sport it is today, the UFC had to deal with great sum of trouble after it begun as a bloody, no-holds-barred competition in 1993. More popularity is now with the ringside seats at the once-a-month UFC events than their boxing equivalents.

The Fertitta brothers, Lorenzo and Frank III, casino moguls who bought the franchise in 2001, are the UFC’s principal owners. Their foremost aim has always been Global expansion for UFC, whose president, Dana White, first revealed the series was coming to Abu Dhabi when he visited the emirate last summer.

Flash, an Abu Dhabi Government subsidiary, was anticipated by few observers. Flash chairman, Ossama Khoreibi, was one person involved in the investment.

He said, “Flash is committed to building Abu Dhabi’s profile as an international entertainment destination, and this partnership provides further proof of our company’s bold ambitions.”

Though the investment in UFC by Flash seems timely, there are speculations that Lorenzo Fertitta had been in Abu Dhabi last week to finalize a deal that had originally been “shook on” with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed in Morocco in December.