After waiting a decade to host an event in Denver for the first time while under Zuffa management, the UFC won’t wait nearly so long a second time around. The promotion announced late on Friday night that it would return to the market on August 11, in an event set to be UFC 150.
The event will be held at the Pepsi Center, the same site as last September’s UFC 135 event.
The promotion also detailed the first two bouts set for the show.
In the first, Luiz Cane will make his middleweight debut against longtime contender Yushin Okami. Cane (12-4, 1 no contest), made the decision to shift weight classes shortly after being upset by Stanislav Nedkov last August. He’s lost three of his last four fights leading into his move to 185.
Okami has dropped two straight fights, both by TKO. The first was a championship fight against Anderson Silva last August. In the other, which came at February’s UFC 144, he was leading Tim Boetsch through two rounds before getting stunned and finished in the third. Okami is 26-7.
The other scrap is a lightweight bout pitting Thiago Tavares (17-4-1) against Dennis Hallman (51-14-2, 1 no contest). Both fighters were both originally linked to UFC on FOX 3 as opponents for Tony Ferguson, but injuries scuttled those plans, and now they’ll meet each other instead.
Last year’s UFC 135 show at the Pepsi Center drew 16,344 fans and a gate of $2.1 million. Denver is also the site of UFC 1 back in November 1993.