UFC 147 official with Silva-Sonnen, Silva-Belfort on June 23 in Rio de Janeiro stadium
As expected, two long-awaited rematches will co-headline the UFC's return to Brazil.
Officials today announced that UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (31-4 MMA, 14-0 UFC) will rematch Chael Sonnen (27-11-1 MMA, 6-4 UFC), and "The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil" coaches Wanderlei Silva (34-11-1 MMA, 4-6 UFC) and Vitor Belfort (21-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC) also will meet again at UFC 147.
UFC 147 takes place June 23 at Joao Havelange Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. It's expected to set a new UFC record attendance.
UFC 147's main card airs on pay-per-view, and FX and Facebook are expected to carry the prelims. It takes place the day after UFC on FX 4 in Atlantic City, N.J.
Joao Havelange Stadium (also known as Engenhao Stadium) is the first soccer stadium to host a UFC event. It won out after UFC officials faced issues with its initially planned host site of Sao Paulo. The Rio stadium, which also hosts the 2016 Summer Olympics, currently can seat approximately 47,000 spectators. UFC officials didn't specify a seating configuration, but they expect it to break the record that Toronto's Rogers Centre set with UFC 129 (55,724) in 2011.
UFC president Dana White mentioned the possibility of 80,000 fans attending the event during a press conference this past week. However, it's not known if that's the figure they're currently shooting for.
"This will be the biggest sporting event of the year," White stated. "Bigger than the NFL, the NBA, you name it. UFC 147 will be the biggest. The whole world wants to see this fight between Silva and Sonnen. We are broadcast in over 150 countries in 22 languages in half a billion homes. Wherever those fans are, they are going to be watching this fight."
Sonnen dominated reigning champ Anderson Silva for four rounds before succumbing to a last-round triangle choke at UFC 117 in 2010. Sonnen set up a rematch with a January win over Michael Bisping, and Silva since has defeated the likes of Belfort of Yushin Okami. The rematch is likely to be one of the biggest fights in MMA history.
In addition to that title fight, Belfort and Wanderlei Silva are slated to fight at UFC 147. Belfort won the first meeting via first-round TKO back in 1998 at "UFC Brazil: Ultimate Brazil" (UFC 17.5). Their rematch coincides with the season finale of "TUF: Brazil," which is the UFC's first international edition of its long-running reality series.
