Forget about Cowboys Stadium. Wanderlei Silva wants something bigger.
“The Axe Murderer” will coach the third season of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil next year, and his long-time rival Chael Sonnen will coach the opposite team. Silva wants a special venue to host the bout.
“I want this fight to take place at Maracana,” Silva said in a press release. “I want a crowd just like the 1950 World Cup final with 110,000 fans in there if possible. If they don’t sell out the place, I’ll buy all the tickets and hand them to the fans.”
Maracana was built in 1950 to host World Cup’s first trip to Brazil, and the Brazil was the heavy favorite to win the championship. However, they lost to Uruguay in front of more than 200,000 fans in the stadium, an episode referred to as the “Maracanazo”.
Silva expects a different ending to his rivalry with Sonnen at the stadium in Rio de Janeiro, and wants the fight to be contested in the light heavyweight division.
“I want him really strong, so he can survive more than a round against me,” he said. “I want this fight at 205 pounds.”
Following the UFC Fight Night 32 press-conference in Goiania, Brazil, UFC president Dana White told the media he would consider doing Wanderlei Silva vs. Chael Sonnen in a soccer stadium in Brazil with Vitor Belfort fighting for the middleweight championship against the winner of Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva 2 on the same night.