Cain Velasquez & Junior dos Santos at UFC on FOX 1 – Photo by Tracy Lee for Yahoo! Sports
Following last nights UFC on FX 3 post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White revealed the date and event for the expected UFC heavyweight title rematch between champ Junior ‘Cigano’ dos Santos (15-1) vs. Cain Velasquez (10-1) and the welterweight fight between former two division title holder BJ ‘The Prodigy’ Penn (16-8-2) vs. Rory ‘The Waterboy’ MacDonald (13-1).
According to MMAFighting.com, who spoke to White, both bouts will take place on September 22, 2012 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with JDS vs. Velasquez headlining and the Penn vs. MacDonald slotted for the co-main event.
White did not name the venue for the show but it’s likely that the event will take place at the Air Canada Centre which hosted last December’s UFC 141 event. No official announcement has come regarding the event from the promotion as of yet.
Dos Santos defeated Velasquez for the title last November at UFC on FOX 1, ending Velasquez’s undefeated streak at nine bouts. Both men competed last month on the main event of UFC 146 with JDS stopping Frank Mir and Velasquez beating Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva bloody in the first round. At the post-fight presser for the Las Vegas event, White confirmed that JDS and Velasquez would face each other next in a title rematch.
Penn recently accepted a challenge from MacDonald earlier this week coming out of semi-retirement. It is the last bout on ‘The Prodigy’s’ contract, leaving some to believe that he plans on going into self-imposed hiatus after September. Penn lost a spirited fight with Nick Diaz last October, announcing his retirement after the bout. MacDonald recently finished Che Mills via TKO at UFC 145 last April to win his third straight.