Tag: Rio’

Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja to defend title on May 4 at UFC 301 in Rio — But against who?

Alexandre PantojaAlexandre Pantoja is gearing up to defend his flyweight title later this year when the UFC returns to Rio…

Alexandre Pantoja

Alexandre Pantoja is gearing up to defend his flyweight title later this year when the UFC returns to Rio de Janeiro. Against whom is of no consequence.

After besting Brandon Moreno for the 125-pound crown in July, ‘The Cannibal’ scored his first successful defense at UFC 296 last month with a decisive decision victory over Brandon Royval. Pantoja is now back in the gym preparing for his next title tilt which he expects to go down on May 4 when the UFC heads back to Brazil for what is expected to be UFC 301.

That comes according to Pantoja’s head coach, Marcos “Parrumpa” DaMatta of American Top Team, who recently told MMA Junkie that ‘The Cannibal’ is determined to defend the flyweight championship in his home country.

“He’s back training – he wants to defend his title in Rio in May,” DaMatta said. “That’s something that we’re really asking the UFC and his managers to make it happen, because it means a lot to him. It’s the first time that he’s going to fight in Rio de Janeiro. He even said that to me, ‘I’ve fought everywhere. I’ve fought in Korea. I’ve fought in the United States, Abu Dhabi, Europe – I’ve never said no to any fight, please just let me defend with my people.’”

There is no Clear-Cut Contender for Pantoja

Though Pantoja is more concerned with the location of his next title fight than the man challenging him, you can’t have one without the other. And when it comes to who is next in the flyweight division, there is no clear answer. A bout scheduled between Manel Kape and Matheus Nicolau earlier this month could have served as a potential title eliminator, but Kape failed to make weight resulting in the bout being scrapped.

No. 2 ranked contender Amir Albazi makes a lot of sense, but ‘The Prince’ was forced to withdraw from a fight with Brandon Moreno at UFC Mexico City on February 24 due to a neck injury. Albaziz was ultimately replaced by Brandon Royval.

If Brandon Moreno comes out on top against Royval, DaMatta believes we could see a fourth clash between him and Pantoja, though that would only give ‘The Assassin Baby’ two and a half months to prepare for a title fight overseas.

“We’re just hoping that we get there in Rio,” DaMatta said. “There’s a lot of tough guys in the division. Why do the fourth Moreno fight? Why do the third Royval fight? Even Kape. We already fought Kape. But I believe Kape has a little bit of problem making weight. He was a bit too big in between fights. Hopefully he gets his things together because he’s a very dangerous opponent, very tough opponent. There’s a lot names. Albazi is still in the picture. Hopefully he gets healthy soon. We’ll see.

“I truly believe if Moreno wins in Mexico City, UFC is going to try to push for the fourth Moreno fight. The only problem that I see is in between Feb. 24 and May 4, is exactly 10 weeks. The first and last week doesn’t count. He’s going to have eight weeks to prepare for a fight. Since he’s already preparing, hopefully he doesn’t get hurt or anything and we can make it happen in Brazil. I think he will say yes because he won the title in Brazil. He doesn’t have any problems going to Brazil and fighting a Brazilian. So let’s see.”

Per an interview with Flamengo, ‘The Cannibal’ confirmed that he will defend his title on May 4 in Rio. We know the when. Now we just need the who.

Report: Alan Belcher vs. Vitor Belfort Being Targeted for UFC 153 in Rio


(Buy all of the Lombard stock you can….wait…he WHAT?! THEN SELL DAMMIT, SELL!!) 

If you are the type of MMA fan that gets his news from CagePotato and only CagePotato, we’d like to thank you for your dedication. Surely you will be rewarded in the afterlife for your selfless sacrifice. At the same time, you’ve more than likely missed out on all of the middleweight calamity that has happened over the past few days, as we deemed it less important than photos of mutilated hands, anti-Mandy Moore smear campaigns, and things of that nature. Clearly we made the right choice, but like we said, we appreciate your dedication.

To sum up the middleweight soap opera in a few sentences, Vitor Belfort tried to call out Chris Weidman, stating both a respect for the fact that Weidman is the top dog at 185 (as we previously stated), and realizing that a win over Weidman would be the easiest path to another shot at Anderson Silva. Weidman promptly denied Belfort, claiming that he had all the respect in the world for the former LHW champ, but simply put, “[he] had his shot” and “right now is my time.”

Meanwhile, in the outskirts of Mississippi, Johnny Cash enthusiast Alan Belcher switched his sights from Michael Bisping to that of Vitor Belfort, which seemed appropriate to us considering that we also called for this matchup. Being that there is no way in hell that a fight between Belfort and Belcher could be anything short of extraordinary, for reals this time, we imagine that most of you agreed with us.

Well, it appears that the dominoes are falling into place like a house of cards, because Belfort and Belcher have verbally agreed to face one another at UFC 153 in Rio, via their respective Twitter accounts.

Hear what was said after the jump.


(Buy all of the Lombard stock you can….wait…he WHAT?! THEN SELL DAMMIT, SELL!!) 

If you are the type of MMA fan that gets his news from CagePotato and only CagePotato, we’d like to thank you for your dedication. Surely you will be rewarded in the afterlife for your selfless sacrifice. At the same time, you’ve more than likely missed out on all of the middleweight calamity that has happened over the past few days, as we deemed it less important than photos of mutilated hands, anti-Mandy Moore smear campaigns, and things of that nature. Clearly we made the right choice, but like we said, we appreciate your dedication.

To sum up the middleweight soap opera in a few sentences, Vitor Belfort tried to call out Chris Weidman, stating both a respect for the fact that Weidman is the top dog at 185 (as we previously stated), and realizing that a win over Weidman would be the easiest path to another shot at Anderson Silva. Weidman promptly denied Belfort, claiming that he had all the respect in the world for the former LHW champ, but simply put, “[he] had his shot” and “right now is my time.”

Meanwhile, in the outskirts of Mississippi, Johnny Cash enthusiast Alan Belcher switched his sights from Michael Bisping to that of Vitor Belfort, which seemed appropriate to us considering that we also called for this matchup. Being that there is no way in hell that a fight between Belfort and Belcher could be anything short of extraordinary, for reals this time, we imagine that most of you agreed with us.

Well, it appears that the dominoes are falling into place like a house of cards, because Belfort and Belcher have verbally agreed to face one another at UFC 153 in Rio, via their respective Twitter accounts.

Belcher hinted at the fight yesterday with the following:

“My next fight will be the biggest of my career! I may be taking a trip down south, very south. #UFC #belcher4champ“

“I will fight anyone.although I want to fight someone who will challenge me!I want to fight @vitorbelfort in his home country in October #UFC“

To which Vitor responded:

“#belcher lets make this fight #ufcrio in oct 13″

Although there has yet to be an official confirmation from the UFC as of this writing, the fight is listed on both men’s Sherdog pages, and you gotta imagine that this will be booked in the immediate future. Not only is Vitor a huge draw in Brazil, but the aforementioned fireworks are all but guaranteed when these two collide.

Belfort has picked up two straight stoppage wins since ending up on Anderson Silva’s highlight reel at UFC 126, first pummeling Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 133, then choking Anthony Johnson’s fat ass right out of the UFC at UFC 142. He was scheduled to face off against long time rival Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147, but suffered a hand injury in training that forced him to pull out from the main event matchup. Currently, oddsmakers have Belfort as a slight favorite over Belcher, but also have the likelihood of “The Phenom” withdrawing due to last minute injury at -1600.

Belcher, on the other hand, has scored four straight victories in the UFC, most recently telling said oddsmakers to go f*ck themselves by pounding out the heavily favored Rousimar Palhares at UFC on FOX 3. Belcher has also finished five of his last 6 opponents inside of the second round, and has not truly lost since getting upset by Jason Day at UFC 83 (yes, I am saying that his UFC 100 fight with Sexyama was a draw at worst. Deal with it.).

UFC 153 is scheduled to go down at the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro on October 13th.

Who do you like for this, Potato Nation?

–J. Jones

UFC Planning Four or Five Events and a Season of TUF in Brazil for 2012


(“Can you believe I used to wear boxers this big?”)

It looks like the UFC’s return to Brazil in August was a fruitful one for Zuffa as Tatame is reporting that reps from the Las Vegas-based promotion are in the South American country working on a deal that could see a season of The Ultimate Fighter filmed in Sao Paulo  as well as up to five events in the region in 2012. The group met with the mayor of the city, Gilberto Kassab, yesterday afternoon and today are meeting with the governor Geraldo Alckmin.

UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told the Brazilian combat sport magazine earlier this summer while in Rio for UFC 134 that he was pleasantly surprised with the amount of support they got in the birthplace of the sport and that they were looking at bringing the Octagon back as many as five times next year.

“We underestimated how popular it was here. If we could do it again, we would do it in a big soccer stadium, you know? But when we put the tickets on sale, we really didn’t know. But it’s been amazing the amount of support, it’s unbelievable,” he explained. “We’re working on [bringing TUF here]; we’re really close to get something done. We think it’s gonna be very successful – a Brazilian Ultimate Fighter, all Brazilian fighters. One thing that is great about this country is that you have so many great fighters, finding talents is easy. There are some many good kids”.


(“Can you believe I used to wear boxers this big?”)

It looks like the UFC’s return to Brazil in August was a fruitful one for Zuffa as Tatame is reporting that reps from the Las Vegas-based promotion are in the South American country working on a deal that could see a season of The Ultimate Fighter filmed in Sao Paulo  as well as up to five events in the region in 2012. The group met with the mayor of the city, Gilberto Kassab, yesterday afternoon and today are meeting with the governor Geraldo Alckmin.

UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told the Brazilian combat sport magazine earlier this summer while in Rio for UFC 134 that he was pleasantly surprised with the amount of support they got in the birthplace of the sport and that they were looking at bringing the Octagon back as many as five times next year.

“We underestimated how popular it was here. If we could do it again, we would do it in a big soccer stadium, you know? But when we put the tickets on sale, we really didn’t know. But it’s been amazing the amount of support, it’s unbelievable,” he explained. “We’re working on [bringing TUF here]; we’re really close to get something done. We think it’s gonna be very successful – a Brazilian Ultimate Fighter, all Brazilian fighters. One thing that is great about this country is that you have so many great fighters, finding talents is easy. There are some many good kids”.

The report goes on to state that Cicero Pompeu de Toledo stadium, which is the home of Sao Paulo’s soccer team and has a capacity of 70,000 not including floor seats, is a possible venue for the UFC’s next Brazilian event. The stadium has played host to musical acts like Paul McCartney, U2, Iron Maiden, Shakira, Madonna and Michael Jackson — the last of whom attracted over 100,000 fans to a show in 1993. If an event is held there, there’s a good chance that the UFC’s previous attendance record of 55,000 set in Toronto at UFC 129 in April would likely be shattered.

Fertitta said that they are also eyeing UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo’s hometown of Manaus as another possible site for a future show.

“We’ve met with the governor of Manaus and they want us to do a fight there. It’s interesting for us, because Jose Aldo is from there, so it’s maybe an opportunity to bring him back to fight in front of his home town”, Fertitta said.

UFC News: ‘Anderson Silva to Get His Own TV Show Ahead of UFC Rio’

Not only is Anderson Silva beloved by UFC fans all over the world, but he is a also a cultural icon in his native land of Brazil.  It is with this reason, that Silva is expected to be offered a deal to star in his own television show according to …

Not only is Anderson Silva beloved by UFC fans all over the world, but he is a also a cultural icon in his native land of Brazil.  It is with this reason, that Silva is expected to be offered a deal to star in his own television show according to GracieMag.com. GracieMag.com reporter, Junior Samurai, confirms […]

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UFC News: ‘Anderson Silva to Get His Own TV Show Ahead of UFC Rio’