One of UFC president Dana White's biggest regrets, it seems, is that he underestimated the size of show he could put on in the UFC’s return to Brazil this weekend for UFC 134. A show in 2012 will rectify that, potentially, as Zuffa apepars to be aiming for the biggest MMA card of all time.
According outlets in Brazil on Tuesday, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who own Zuffa, the parent company of UFC, met with the governor of Amazonas (Omar Aziz) and his deputy Jose Melo. The topic of conversation: an August 2012 date for the UFC that would crush this year’s Georges St. Pierre-headlined UFC 129 crown of 55,724 in Toronto.
To be held at Manaus’ Convention Center, the “Sambódromo” can hold a capacity of over 100,000, potenitally more than double the Toronto crowd.
“The opportunity to realize the UFC in Manaus and bring home some of the great fighters who are from this region is something that makes us very excited,” Lorenzo Fertitta was quoted as saying.
The all-time MMA attendance record is an unverified 91,107 fans to Tokyo National Stadium in Japan in 2002 for a Pride/K-1 card. That was never verified and largely believed to have been inflated.
Who would be on that card? Among the Zuffa-employed fighters with ties to the area are Jose Aldo, reigning featherweight champ, and current Strikeforce middleweight champ Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.
