UFC Fight Night Zagreb: The only way is up in Europe after another outstanding night of action

Another outstanding night of action in Zagreb capped the UFC's fourth successive sell out with a fifth to come in Rotterdam next month

Dos Santos hits Rothwell with a right hook to the body (Reuters)

On Sunday evening, UFC Vice President and General Manager of Europe, Middle East and Africa, James Elliott, walked into the post-fight press conference at UFC Zagreb with an ear-to-ear grin on his face - and for very good reason.

After thanking the Croatian hosts for their kind hospitality, Elliott announced a live gate of $549,000 and a sold out attendance of 13,177. Elliott revealed this was the UFC's fourth consecutive sellout and that the next show in Rotterdam was already the fifth as the UFC heads to the Netherlands for the first time next month. While the numbers and figures will have pleased the UFC no end, the intangibles of the evening will also not have gone unnoticed at the Las Vegas headquarters.

Given this was the first show in Croatia, it would have been understandable to see the evening play out in front of a slightly timid crowd, who didn't know how to react to the action or what to expect from the night as it unfolded.

If the crowd did indeed feel this way it was almost impossible to tell. As is becoming a common theme wth European shows, the crowd in Zagreb was lively from the very first fight of the evening and on more than one occasion they really did make it sound like the roof was about to blow off the Zagreb Arena.

While loud, the crowd were also knowledgeable and paid respect to each and every fighter who made their way to the Octagon. Predictability, the loudest cheer of the evening was reserved for a man that wasn't even fighting, as Croatian fighting legend Mirko Cro Cop took his seat. It was a shame not to see him fight in front of his home crowd but it was still a nice touch to see the crowd pay such respect for one of their true national heroes.

Fantastic shows and lively crowds are becoming common place for the UFC in Europe and it can only strengthen their claim to later down the line to host one of the company's larger 'numbered events' (eg. UFC 205 etc).

The challenges of difficult logistics and potential lost pay-per-view revenue still remain, though when the UFC are having shows like UFC Dublin, UFC Glasgow and even UFC Zagreb last evening, the temptation must be there to see what business a major event could do here in Europe.

The continued success of European talents such as Conor McGregor, Tom Breese and Stipe Miocic will likely play a large role on whether this materialises anytime soon though the reality is that it may still be a little way off.

In the meantime, Elliott and his team will simply continue to sell out arenas with UFC Rotterdam in May the next stop with another event that sold out in just over three hours. With plans to return to Germany in Q3 and then the UK again before the end of the year, another two sellouts will likely be on the cards and If everything goes totally to form, it's likely we also see another two outstanding nights of fights