Kevin Iole confirms the rumors:
The promotion will try to take advantage of the economy and the rabid mixed martial arts following in the country when it hosts a pay-per-view card on Aug. 27 at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
UFC president Dana White told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday that many of the 36 Brazilian fighters on the company’s roster would compete on the show. Among the Brazilians under contract to the UFC are middleweight champion Anderson Silva, featherweight champion Jose Aldo and middleweight contender Vitor Belfort.
White said the UFC’s interest in Brazil intensified after Rio de Janeiro landed the 2016 Summer Olympics.
“Because of how big this is here, people were always asking me about Brazil and when it would happen and I always said it probably won’t happen for a while because we weren’t focused on it,” White said by telephone Wednesday from Rio, where he was headed to a news conference to announce the show. “But when they got the Olympics, I said, ‘Now we’re interested,’ and we really began to look at Brazil.
Welcome Brazil to the world stage as an entertainment player and consider the possibilities of what can be achieved. Consider also how the UFC’s ability to take their product mobile allows them to diversify geographic sources of revenue. If it isn’t already true, then certainly in 10 years it will be: the UFC may be America’s most globalized sports league.
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