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Arenas can hold any number of events from ballgames to concerts to hockey games. Nothing gets the fans flocking to the venue closest to their home quite like a good, clean fight night. As someone who grew up in northeast Ohio, Rocket Arena, the current home venue of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, ranks near the top of the list when it comes to all-purpose indoor arenas.
Speaking of Rocket Arena, the venue served as the host site for UFC 203 in September of 2016. That late summer night, just under three months after the Cavs scored the NBA title on the road versus the Golden State Warriors, what was then known as The Q was the setting for Stipe Miocic (20-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) stopping Alistair Overeem (47-19, 1 NC MMA, 12-8 UFC) with a first-round knockout due to ground and pound shots in the main event.
Arenas can be amazing places, particularly and especially on a fight night. Thus, it’s in that spirit that we now present a top-five power rankings for indoor stadiums.
Top Five Arenas Power Rankings Ground Rules
Before we commence with the top five power rankings, we’ve first got to establish some ground rules for this list. As Cosmo Kramer once said on Seinfeld: “Without rules, there’s chaos.”
Rule No. 1: For the purposes of today’s article, we’ll be going in ascending order from No. 5 to No. 1 on the list.
Rule No. 2: These power rankings for arenas will not just be limited to venues that have hosted MMA shows. Arenas that have played host to boxing cards can and will be featured here on the rankings.
Rule No. 3: This ground rule is of critical importance: Venues that hosted UFC shows during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and early 2021 won’t be featured here, such as the UFC Apex facility in Enterprise, NV and Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville. Due to the fact that real life wrote the plot, resulting in the arenas not being open to the general public, no rankings are to be applied to those venues.
Top Five Arenas Power Rankings: No. 5: 2300 Arena- Philadelphia, PA
In at No. 5 today on the power rankings is a regular stop for Cage Fury Fighting Championships, otherwise known as CFFC. Fans of sports entertainment from the late 1990s and early aughts of the 21st century know this venue better as the ECW Arena.
2300 Arena served as the taping location for the television programs of the late Extreme Championship Wrestling, a promotion more intense than the then-WWF and WCW combined, so much so that broadcast television stations which bought the ECW TV show had to run the program in late night or overnight hours.
While 2300 Arena’s days as the ECW Arena are long past, the venue has still played host to sports entertainment shows as late as 2024 and will hold a residency of shows for AEW between late August and mid-September of 2025. Although this arena seats slightly over 1,300 spectators, it can get loud in there on fight night, even when you’re watching the fights on a streaming device.
Top Five Arenas Power Rankings: No. 4: O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
Coming in at No. 4 on the power rankings, we take you now to the United Kingdom for a spot of tea and a visit to the O2 Arena. The London venue is a regular stop on the UFC world tour, holding cards at various dates for a number of years, including UFC 286 in 2023.
During that pay-per-view, Leon Edwards (22-5, 1 NC MMA, 14-4, 1 NC UFC) bested Kamaru Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) in a trilogy bout for the UFC Welterweight Championship in the main event. O2 Arena was scheduled to hold a UFC Fight Night in March of 2020, before the show was postponed, along with all then-upcoming cards, by the pandemic.
Even though COVID-19 forced that show to be dropped, O2 Arena came back strong and is one of the best arenas for a fight night.
Top Five Arenas Power Rankings: No. 3: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT
As we reach the midpoint of these power rankings, we head back to the United States of America and Connecticut. Let’s go to Mohegan Sun Arena, the epicenter of Bellator MMA’s operations during the pandemic of 2020 and early 2021.
When Bellator was forced to call an 11th-hour postponement of its March 13, 2020 card, Bellator 241 out of concern for the fighters who were slated to compete that night, Mohegan Sun Arena was to have been the host venue for the show. Initially, the event was to have been held behind closed doors before the decision was made to call it off.
The health and safety of everyone involved have, and will remain, our top priority as we move forward. After carefully monitoring the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, @BellatorMMA has chosen to postpone this evening’s Bellator 241 event at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
— Scott Coker (@ScottCoker) March 13, 2020
Upon Bellator MMA’s resumption of events later that summer, their shows, along with those of Premier Boxing Champions, were held at Mohegan Sun, temporarily known in MMA circles as the Fightsphere.
Both before and after the pandemic, Mohegan Sun Arena was a frequent haunt for the late promotion, with its final event there being Bellator 289 in December of 2022, highlighted by Raufeon Stots (21-2 MMA, 8-1 Bellator) besting Danny Sabatello (15-4-1 MMA, 4-3 Bellator) via split decision for the Bellator MMA Interim Bantamweight Championship. More recently, Mohegan Sun Arena held PFL 4 in the 2024 season. The venue is a firm No. 3 in our power rankings.
Top Five Arenas Power Rankings: No. 2: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
There’s an old adage: “Go west, young man!” That’s what we’re doing now as we take a trip to the No. 2 spot in our power rankings, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. T-Mobile has been the de facto “home” arena for MMA’s No. 1 promotion, the UFC, since its opening for business in 2016.
The landmark UFC 200 in the summer of 2016 was the venue’s first UFC card. A year later, the UFC and T-Mobile Arena came to terms on a pact to ensure that the promotion would become one of its primary tenants. Save for an interregnum caused by COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, every UFC premium live event taking place in Las Vegas has emanated from T-Mobile Arena.
Simply put, there are too many marquee fights that have originated from this venue to mention here, but there’s one arena that’s beaten out T-Mobile Arena in these power rankings.
Top Five Arenas Power Rankings: No. 1: Madison Square Garden, New York City
The No. 1 spot in our arenas power rankings goes to The World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden in New York City. If we would have put any other indoor stadium in the top spot, there may have been a federal investigation. We’re only kidding about that, of course.
Jokes aside, Madison Square Garden is (fittingly) the Yankee Stadium of combat sports. Much like T-Mobile Arena, MSG has held countless noteworthy bouts in its life, but the venue played an important role in MMA history.
In March of 2016, the New York State Legislature overturned its nearly-two decade ban on MMA, clearing the way for the UFC to hold its first-ever event at MSG. Other than 2020, when MSG was closed for mass gatherings because of COVID, the venue has held a November pay-per-view every year.
