Photo by Tracy Lee for Yahoo! Sports
The Ultimate Fighting Championship had initially been seeking a stadium venue in Sao Paolo, Brazil for this summer’s expected UFC 147 event, but due to a lack of available venues the promotion is headed back to Rio de Janeiro and is looking for a venue there to seat 80,000 fans.
UFC president Dana White revealed the details during Wednesday’s press conference from Calgary, Alberta, Canada to announce the upcoming UFC 145 event.
No specific venue was named, but the UFC 147 show is expected to take place on either June 16th or June 23rd.
Headlining the event will be a UFC middleweight title rematch between champion Anderson Silva and challenger, Chael Sonnen. Both men faced off in August 2010 in the main event of UFC 117. Sonnen surprised most everyone by controlling the fight for most of the fight, only to wind up losing in the last round via triangle/armbar choke.
Sonnen earned his title shot by defeating Michael Bisping at the UFC on FOX 2 show this past January. While ‘The Spider’ last saw action at UFC 134 last August by defeating Yushin Okami.
This stadium event would surpass the UFC’s largest event, UFC 129, which saw 55,724 fans pack the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario last April.