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“I think it’s great that we’ve got these opportunities to take our sport into some of the smaller communities. They may be small in population, but we know we’ve got some great fans and it’s a great opportunity for us to once again demonstrate that the best way to experience our sport is to do it at a live event.”

Whenever the UFC brings the Octagon beyond the borders of the United States, it tends to load up those fight cards with athletes from the host country or region, so expect to see a healthy number of Canadian competitors making the walk to the eight-sided cage in Ottawa later this year.

That means the possibility of seeing fighters such as veteran Patrick Cote, who has won three straight to climb the welterweight rankings, Montreal native and recent title challenger Valerie “Trouble” Letourneau and rising light heavyweight prospect Misha Cirkunov, who picked up his second straight stoppage victory in February at UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson in Las Vegas.

While a main event has yet to be confirmed, Ariel Helwani reported on Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight that a fight between Canadian Rory MacDonald and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson is currently being discussed.

Thompson is coming off an impressive first-round win over former champ Johny Hendricks and MacDonald is returning for the first time since his 2015 Fight of the Year loss to Robbie Lawler at UFC 189, which makes this potential pairing a clash of welterweight title contenders and potentially an outstanding headliner for the UFC’s debut in Ottawa.

Earlier in the year, Wright said that the UFC plans to hold three events in Canada in 2016 and he confirmed again Thursday that the plan remains unchanged.

“We’re still committed to three events in Canada, the first one being Saturday, June 18, in Ottawa.”

Expect fight announcements for the June event in Ottawa to start trickling in over the course of the next few weeks.