In a recent interview with former UFC light heavyweight champ Vitor ‘The Phenom’ Belfort (19-9), the Brazilian talked about the upcoming UFC 134 event slotted for Aug. 27 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Belfort, who will not be fighting on that card for his next fight, was asked how he felt about being overlooked for the UFC’s return to Brazil by Tatame.com.
‘The Phenom’ responded by saying that “Lorenzo (Fertitta) already told me the next edition will be hosted in a soccer stadium, and it won’t be the last one.”
At the pre-fight press conference for UFC 134 recently, UFC President Dana White already spoke of returning to the South American country a few times in the near future.
It appears that after the recent success of the promotions first stadium event, UFC 129 in Toronto, an event that sold out 55,000 tickets, that the UFC will look to hold their next stadium event in Brazil.
A likely candidate, pictured above, is the Estádio do Maracanã soccer stadium located in Rio de Janeiro with a capacity of 82,238, making it the largest stadium in Brazil and in South America. The facility is already slotted to host events for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Belfort’s next fight is scheduled to take place on Aug. 6 in Philadelphia, Penn. against Yoshihiro Akiyama on the main card of UFC 133. ‘The Phenom’ will look to rebound from a title loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 126 last February.
Be sure to visit the link above to check out the entire interview with Belfort.