(Full press conference video, via YouTube.com/UFC. Man, Nick Ring is like a *god* in that town.)
Today’s UFC press conference in Calgary resulted in a tidal wave of major announcements, highlighted by two title-fight bookings and confirmations of three Canadian events in 2012. Here’s what we’re looking at…
– The middleweight championship rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen will take place at an 80,000-seat soccer stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, not Sao Paulo as originally reported. [Ed. note: R.I.P., Chael.] The exact venue hasn’t been confirmed yet, and the event is expected to take place at UFC 147 on either June 16th or June 23rd. It will be the third time in 10 months that Rio will host a UFC event. We’ll be keeping our eyes out for this guy.
– For the third year in a row, the UFC will hold three events in Canada this year: UFC 149 in Calgary (7/21), UFC 152 in Toronto (9/22), and UFC 154 in Montreal (11/17). No matchups have been scheduled for the Toronto and Montreal shows, although welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre said he’d like to compete at UFC 154 if his knee-surgery recovery allows it.
– The Calgary event will be headlined by Jose Aldo defending his title against a challenger to be named later. It will be the UFC’s first official visit to Alberta, although the WEC previously held their “Varner vs. Shalorus” event in Alberta in June 2010. Aldo is coming off his first-round knockout of Chad Mendes at UFC 142; his next opponent is rumored to be Hatsu Hioki.
– Jason MacDonald is already scheduled to face Tom Lawlor at UFC on FUEL 3 (May 15th; Fairfax, VA), but the Calgary native hopes to have his UFC retirement fight at UFC 149.