UFC Announces Return to Brazil With 'UFC: Rio' in August 2011

10 years from now, there will MMA cards every weekend of the year branded under the UFC name. UFC Rio, UFC China, UFC India, etc., etc.

It is definitely overdue.

They only have 36 Brazilians on their roster? I find that hard to beleive.

Also, why was the Olympics a selling point?

If it isn’t already true, then certainly in 10 years it will be: the UFC may be America’s most globalized sports league.

I’m wondering if this isn’t already true. Holding the occasional regular season game in London or Mexico City just isn’t the same thing as putting championship bouts on overseas.

White said the UFC’s interest in Brazil intensified after Rio de Janeiro landed the 2016 Summer Olympics.

It doesn’t take a Harvard Business Masters degree to figure out Brazil will have a lot of focus very soon with the Olympics and I believe the World Cup.

Australia, Abu Dhabi again, Canada (prolly twice), Britain (atleast once, maybe twice), maybe another Germany event. I think Zuffa has done a good job expanding its markets. If they can break into a few other places they have been looking at (Mexico, China, the Phillipines all come to mind) it could mean a lot for the sport.

Come oooooooooon Ultimate Africa

Meaning, what does the production team value? Going to a country like Brazil gives you the opportunity to showcase something of Brazil itself. There must be a way to bridge the divide between the fights and the culture in which you are staging them. NBC does a decent job of this during Olympic coverage – perhaps the UFC could do a much more limited showcase package. I was excited when they went to Abu Dhabi, but aside from the outdoor change-up I was disappointed.

I definitely think they want a Brazilian headliner, and there will be no shortage of Brazilian champs. Now they have Aldo, Silva, and Shogun, and potentially JDS by the time this rolls around. Timing wise, I think they’re trying to get a double header of Silva-Sonnen II or Silva-Silva (Anderson-Wand) and Aldo-Hominick or Aldo-Grispi

Does this mean they’re finally going to announce Cain vs. dos Santos???

Here just hoping that the attendance will be decent on this one. I’ll be travelling from Sao Paulo with 3 other friends to see the show, and many other friends have expressed their willingness to visit Rio just for the UFC.

However, not many local MMA promotions draw a decent attendance and some of them were really, really disappointing (Bitteti Combat, and some Jungle Fight editions, for instance…).

The arena is beatiful, the city is very scenic, and UFC production and brand speak for themselves. Really hope it wont take another 10 years for the UFC to return here.