Tickets On Sale for February UFC Japan Card

Lightweight contender Ben Henderson

Presale tickets available now; general public on Dec. 10

In Japan and planning to attend the UFC’s return to the Land of the Rising Sun? Get your credit card ready.

Tickets for UFC Japan go on sale today through UFC Mobile. On Tuesday, fans in Japan can get tickets through WOWOW and Nikkan Sports. WOWOW is a subscription-based Japanese broadcasting company; Nikkan Sports is a daily sports newspaper with a circulation of nearly 2 million.

Tickets will range in price from 5,800 Japanese Yen to ¥100,000. Current exchange rates between the Yen and U.S. Dollar (1/0.0128) make those tickets priced from just under $75 to nearly $1,300. The pricing breakdown is similar to major U.S. UFC pay-per-view shows.

Tickets for the general public will be made available starting Dec. 10 through Lawson Tickets, E-Plus and Kyodo Promotion. UFC Japan, as the card is being billed (UFC 144 in the numbered event system), will take place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, just north of Tokyo. The arena has hosted some of the biggest events in MMA history and was the home for many Pride Fighting Championship events.

The UFC on Monday announced the full fight card for UFC Japan with a press conference in Tokyo that featured many of the card’s biggest names. Headlining the event will be a lightweight title fight between champion Frankie Edgar and top contender Ben Henderson. The co-main event will feature a name plenty familiar to Japanese MMA fans – Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who was a Pride star for many years before coming to the UFC. Jackson will fight Ryan Bader in the co-main event six years to the day from his last fight in Japan.

Also appearing at the press conference alongside UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, UFC international managing director Marshall Zelaznik and UFC Asia managing director Mark Fischer were Japanese star Yoshihiro Akiyama and Jake Shields, who meet in a welterweight bout on the main card; Mark Hunt and Cheick Kongo; Joe Lauzon and Anthony Pettis; and Japanese fighters Yushin Okami, Takanori Gomi, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, Hatsu Hioki, Takeya Mizugaki and Riki Fukuda, all of whom have fights on the card. The card features seven Japanese fighters, though only Akiyama will appear on the main card.

“Japan is the spiritual home of martial arts,” Fertitta said in a release from the UFC. “The world has learned from the Japanese many aspects of how to compete in hand-to-hand combat with respect and honor. But Japan also has a proud history of modern mixed martial arts and I am excited to bring the Ultimate Fighting Championship back here …”

The UFC last held a show in Japan in December 2000, prior to its purchase by Zuffa. Due to the time difference between Tokyo and the United States, the pay-per-view is scheduled to air live in the U.S. at 8 p.m. Eastern on Feb. 25. There is a 14-hour time difference between Tokyo and the Eastern time zone in the U.S.