The UFC today held a press conference in Brazil to officially announce the middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen, but as the rumor-mill had suggested it will no longer take place in a soccer stadium in Rio on June 23rd as had been originally planned.
Instead, due to a number of logistical issues the fight has been moved to Las Vegas to headline UFC 148 on July 7th. UFC President Dana White explained that due to the magnitude of the bout, since they couldn’t secure a stadium in Brazil in time then the only option was to move it to Las Vegas as that’s the fight capital of the world.
However, the UFC will still hold an event in Brazil which will feature the finals of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil plus the fight between the season coaches Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva.
Interestingly, White also revealed that they are working on potentially having another Brazilian star, featherweight champion Jose Aldo also fight on the card.
Speaking about the change in country for his latest title defense, Anderson Silva admitted that he was upset that he won’t get to fight Sonnen in Brazil, but added that he has fans all around the world, not only in Brazil, so he doesn’t have a problem having to fight him in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, Chael Sonnen claims he too was disappointed that the fight won’t take place in a soccer stadium as he wanted to have a chance to break the UFC 129 attendance record.
