Conor McGregor is making his comeback at UFC 257 against Dustin Poirier. Reuters
Conor McGregor is making his comeback at UFC 257 against Dustin Poirier. Reuters
Conor McGregor is making his comeback at UFC 257 against Dustin Poirier. Reuters
Conor McGregor is making his comeback at UFC 257 against Dustin Poirier. Reuters

Other Sport

More tickets made available for Conor McGregor comeback at UFC 257

Huge demand for the Fight Island Triple Header finale at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi

John McAuley
John McAuley

January 20, 2021

  • English
  • Arabic

Conor McGregor fans have been provided another opportunity to see the UFC star in action on Sunday, with a fresh batch of tickets released for UFC 257.

A limited number of tickets were made available on Wednesday night, after a huge demand for the Fight Island Triple Header finale at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Tickets originally went on sale on January 8.

Making his UFC debut, McGregor takes on Dustin Poirier in the headline bout, in a rematch of their 2014 encounter. It represents his first competitive fight in more than a year.

The series opener last Saturday, UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Kattar, welcomed fans to a live UFC event for the first time since March, with attendance capped at 2,000. Etihad Arena boasts an 18,000 capacity.

Dana White, the promotion's president who had been skeptical about staging shows below venue capacity, told The National on Tuesday: "I was obviously very negative going in. But it sounded unbelievable, the fans were awesome. They were going out of their minds.

“Every time something cool happened during a fight, it could be a transition on the ground or whatever, the fans were super-educated and responded to everything.

“I had a blast. They’re opening it up to even more for the Conor fight, so it should be rocking in there.”

Asked why he was initially reluctant to do anything but a capacity event, White said: “My thing is I don’t want to go into a 20,000-seat arena and bring in 3,000 people. It doesn’t have the same type of energy level, and I don’t need to.

“What I’d rather do is when the day comes, when the time is ready, we’ll go in and be the first to sell out an arena and do a real event. But I’m not going to tell you that I hated Saturday night and the fans that were in there. They were awesome. It was very cool.”

Tickets for UFC 257 are available at ticketmaster.ae and etihadarena.ae.

MATCH INFO

Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')

Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')

Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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