On Saturday, January 19, the UFC returns to Brazil for their first offering of 2013. In the main event, middleweight favorites Vitor Belfort and Michael Bisping square off with a championship opportunity (somewhat) hanging in the balance.
If Bisping is successful in defeating his Brazilian foe, he will collect a long-awaited title shot against Anderson Silva later in the year. However, Dana White has already made it clear that Belfort will not be afforded the same luxury.
In the co-main event, C.B. Dollaway returns to action after defeating Jason Miller last year. The man standing across the cage is fellow TUF finalist Daniel Sarafian, who was forced out of his tournament final due to injury.
However, if you don’t know where and when to tune in, it’s going to be hard to catch all of the action. That’s why BR MMA is here; to hook you up with the details.
Facebook Prelims:
Only one fight goes down on Facebook this time around, and it’s an interesting lightweight battle between two fighters looking to keep their job.
Francisco Trinaldo is possibly the largest lightweight that the division has ever seen, and he squares off against little-known C.J. Keith. Both men are coming off of losses in their UFC debuts.
To see this fight, tune in to the official UFC Facebook page at 5:35 p.m. EST.
FUEL Prelims:
At 6 p.m. EST, tune in to FUEL TV (assuming that you are lucky enough to have the channel in your area) for six fights full of UFC notables and rising stars.
Fights on the FUEL portion of UFC on FX 7 include:
- Godofredo Pepey vs. Milton Vieira
- Andrew Craig vs. Ronny Markes
- Diego Nunes vs. Nik Lentz
- Edson Barboza vs. Lucas Martins
- Yuri Alcantara vs. Pedro Nobre
- Wagner Prado vs. Ildemar Alcantara
While not all of the names may jump out at you as stars, Diego Nunes and Edson Barboza are both stars who could be featured on any pay-per-view main card.
FX Main Card:
When the clock strikes 9 p.m. EST, it’s time to flip over to FX (preferably the HD version) for the main card. On that event, you’ll see the following fights:
- Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping
- Godofredo Pepey vs. Milton Vieira
- Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ben Rothwell
- Thiago Tavares vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
That’s it for the the live fights coming to you from Sao Paulo, however, make sure you tune in to FUEL TV at 11 p.m. for the post-fight show with Jay Glazer.
Stay tuned to Bleacher Report MMA for all things UFC on FX 7, including live results and post-fight analyses that you can’t find anywhere else.
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