By Andy Cotterill
Several sources have told me that the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will be returning to Montreal in May, with one source stating that they were told it would be on May 10th.
I called the Bell Centre administration today to see if the venue was booked by the UFC, but the person I spoke with said that they saw nothing in their databases.
It could be that the contract between the UFC and the venue has not been signed yet therefore is not official, hence the person could not see it.
It could be that the UFC will take place in a different building, although unlikely. The UFC has held events in Montreal 7 times in the past, each time at the Bell Centre.
Finally, it could be that the Bell Centre has some type of Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the UFC and was prohibited from telling me.
Additionally, I have been told that at least one, but possibly two other fight promotions have attempted to book the Bell Centre for events in 2025, but they were denied as the Bell Centre has blocked off access to MMA (or possibly fighting in general) from February until September.
That timeline is 3 months to either side of the suspected UFC event in May, which ties-in to what I’ve been told in the past is a common practice from the UFC when negotiating venue contracts, although I have no evidence to support that.
If this event does take place in May, or whenever the UFC does return to Montreal, we can expect to see a handful of Canadian, specifically Quebecois fighters on the card.
There are currently thirteen Canadian fighters on the UFC roster, with three of them, Marc-André Barriault, Charles Jourdain, and Aiemann Zahabi, coming from La belle Province.
As always, remember to check back on MM-EH.ca for the most current Canadian MMA news, there’s nowhere better.