Madison Square Garden has seen so many events throughout its years. If that building could talk, oh, man, the stories it would tell.
For decades, it's been the WWE's de facto home arena whenever a show's been held in New York City and "The World's Most Famous Arena" has played host to WrestleMania three times, most recently the landmark WrestleMania XX in 2004. It's also been the host venue for so many noteworthy boxing matches, either in The Theater or the main hall, including Callum Walsh's fight this past Thursday.
MMA is a relatively new sport on Madison Square Garden's calendar events, only holding its first UFC event seven years ago this month after New York State finally legalized the sport following a 19-year ban. With the legalization, professional MMA was permitted in every US state.
Since MMA was legalized in New York with the 113-25 vote in the spring of 2016, MSG has been an annual tour stop on the UFC's calendar of events, with a gap year in 2020 thanks to COVID-19 safeguards preventing traditional arena shows from being held. The world's top MMA promotion sets foot in The Garden once again this Saturday.
30 years ago, the sports landscape in the United States consisted of baseball, football, basketball and hockey. As far as combat sports were concerned, boxing and kickboxing were all that existed. In November of 1993, a little combat sport that could, MMA, was introduced to the masses. The UFC's beginnings were humble, with limited distribution on television for pay-per-views. Nobody could have ever fathomed the behemoth that mixed martial arts would eventually become in the aftermath of UFC 1 on the night of Nov. 12, 1993 in Denver at the now-closed McNichol Sports Arena.
Taking to Instagram, UFC president, Dana White announced three title fights for the first three months of 2024.
In January at UFC 297, the middleweight...
