UFC boss teases January megafight with Cowboys Stadium, Rogers Centre as potential hosts
NEW YORK CITY – The Ultimate Fighting Championship has several big fights on the horizon, but the promotion's boss is already daydreaming about something even bigger.
At today's pre-UFC on FOX 3 press conference in New York City, UFC president Dana White teased a potential return to Toronto's Rogers Centre or even a visit to Dallas' 100,000-seat Cowboys Stadium.
"We're talking about doing some big fights here," White said. "If things work out the way, you know, they could, we'd end up doing a big fight probably in January."
"If that fight happens, we're looking at three venues. Obviously, always, Las Vegas is a venue. Dallas, Texas Stadium, and Toronto again, where we could hold huge events. if things go the way that they could go, by January we're already talking about Dallas, Texas Stadium – Cowboys Stadium or whatever they call it."
White didn't elaborate on what fight could potentially command such a massive venue or reveal how scenarios would play out to make such an event possible.
Any mention of Canada immediately brings discussion of UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. He's currently nursing a surgically repaired knee and has vowed to face interim champion Carlos Condit before the end of the year, leaving "Rush" an unlikely choice for such an event.
UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva is slated to fight Chael Sonnen at July's UFC 148 event and would likely have plenty of time to recover and ready for a January megafight, should he prove victorious. Ditto for the company's newest superstar, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who will fight Dan Henderson later this year.
So could one (or both) of those fighters command such a venue?
"Jones vs. Silva at Cowboy's Stadium?" White asked. "I don't know, we'll see what happens.
"Nobody's lined up. [Expletive] has got to go that way, and if it does..."
In 2010, White traveled to Dallas to watch boxing great Manny Pacquiao defeat Joshua Clottey. The bout drew nearly 51,000 spectators, and thanks to the revolutionary 175-foot high-definition video board, White believes the integrity of the event was not sacrificed.
So much so, White later admitted to tentatively planning a UFC event with Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar at Cowboys Stadium, the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. When a potential deal with Emelianenko was eventually scrapped, so were the plans for the event.
"I'd want to go there with the right fight," White said in 2010 of a trip to Dallas. "As soon as I have the right fight, we'll go there."
Meanwhile, Toronto's Rogers Centre played host to 2011's historic UFC 129 event, which served as the company's first stadium show and set North American MMA records with a 55,724 attendance and $12.075 million gate.
UFC on FOX 3 takes place Saturday at IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., and airs live on FOX. Prelims precede the network-televised broadcast on FUEL TV and Facebook.
