UFC opens new $12-million performance institute in Las Vegas for fighters

In an effort to create healthier, more skilled fighters, the company officially opens its new $12 million UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas on Monday.

An estimated 300 fighters were summoned to tour the 30,000-square-foot, two-story institute Friday as part of the weekend UFC athlete retreat.

“This place is your house,” UFC President Dana White told the group that included women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, women’s featherweight contender Cris “Cyborg” Justino, flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and former middleweight champion Chris Weidman.

“This facility is open to everybody. You can start or end your camp here … we have the best training facility here on planet Earth.”

Supervised by former UFC light-heavyweight champion and current company Vice President Forrest Griffin with a full staff of nutrition, medical and strength and conditioning experts, the Performance Institute offers a full-size octagon, boxing ring and wrestling mat upstairs for fighter training.

There will be no usage fees for the fighters, who have access to cardio equipment, including a high-altitude simulator, weights and water treadmills.

The facility has a nutrition and sleep station, along with high-definition cameras to review training and a bone-density and body composition scanner intended to assist fighters in pursuit of the ideal fighting weight.

Such information communicated by an institute counselor should spawn “an open dialogue with data behind it” among fighters who habitually struggle with weight cuts, according to a staff member.

“Everything an athlete tells [counselors] in confidence has to stay encrypted and cannot leave … without medical release,” to UFC executives, Griffin explained to ease any “big-brother” concerns among the athletes. “First question I get as I take athletes through is, ‘When can I move in?’ The second I get is, ‘Where’s all this [data] going?’ I tell them, ‘It’s going with you.’”

Recently, lightweight title contender Khabib Nurmagomedov of Russia scrapped his co-main event against Tony Ferguson in March, and light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier required a second visit to the scale in April after first coming in heavy.

The facility’s arrival coincides with the announcement this week from the California State Athletic Commission, which will supervise UFC 214 July 29 in Anaheim, of a 10-point plan to address severe weight cutting and dehydration in combat sports.

“This is going to change the way nutrition is done,” Griffin said. “If you have information in your hand and are able to understand your body a little more, you can understand where exactly you need to be instead of a hope and a guess.”

Injured athletes can also rehabilitate at the institute.

“I didn’t know who to reach out to,” Griffin said of an injury that shortened his fighting career.

Though the UFC has been subjected to criticism in the past for fighter care, Ari Emanuel, head of the Beverly Hills talent agency WME-IMG, which owns UFC, wanted the fighters to know the institute was built to show “we [care] about you.”

Increased performance, injury treatment and safer training techniques to extend careers are the priorities, another UFC executive explained.

“We’re humbled to be part of this sport, and we thank you all,” Emanuel told the fighters. “This is all about you guys. We want to make sure you guys get the best of the best … this is about making sure you guys realize we give a … about you.