Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping To Headline UFC's Return To Brazil

[No More Sorrow]

Reports of new bouts for the UFC's return to Brazil in January had been trickling in with regularity earlier this week. Now they're official.

The UFC today announced a 12-fight card in Brazil for Jan. 19, though the host city and venue are still to be determined and, the UFC said, will be announced soon. The four-fight main card is likely to air on either FX or FUEL TV.


Headlining the event will be a middleweight bout between recent light heavyweight title challenger and former middleweight title challenger Vitor Belfort (21-10 MMA, 10-6 UFC) and Michael Bisping (23-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC).


In the co-main event, C.B. Dollaway (12-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) returns for the first time since a May win over Jason "Mayhem" Miller and takes on Daniel Sarafian (7-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who reached the finals of the first season of "The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil," but couldn't fight due to a training injury. He'll make his official UFC debut in front of his home country after recently getting clearance to begin training again.


Rounding out the main card is a heavyweight fight between Gabriel Gonzaga (13-6 MMA, 8-5 UFC) and Ben Rothwell (32-8 MMA, 2-2 UFC), which MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) on Friday reported, and a lightweight scrap between Thiago Tavares (17-4-1 MMA, 7-4-1 UFC) and Khabib Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC).


Previously reported bouts headed for the eight-fight preliminary card include Yuri Alcantara (27-4 MMA, 2-1 UFC) vs. George Roop (12-9-1 MMA, 2-5 UFC) at bantamweight; featherweights Godofredo Castro (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) vs. Milton Vieira (13-7-2 MMA, 0-0-1 UFC); and Diego Nunes (18-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) vs. Nik Lentz (24-5-2 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC) at featherweight.


In addition, the prelims will feature a middleweight bout between Andrew Craig (8-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) and Ronny Markes (13-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC); a lightweight scrap between Edson Barboza (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) and Justin Salas (10-4 MMA, 1-1 UFC); Michael Kuiper (12-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) vs. Thiago Perpetuo (9-1-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at middleweight; a light heavyweight bout between Roger Hollett (13-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) and Wagner Prado (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC); and Francisco Trinaldo (11-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) vs. C.J. Keith (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at lightweight.


Just this past week, Belfort on Twitter said reports of a bout between him and Bisping were mere rumors – until something was announced. The rumors, of course, now have proven to be well-founded. Belfort is coming off a fourth-round submission loss to light heavyweight champ Jon Jones in the main event of UFC 152 in Toronto. The defeat was just the second in nine fights for the Brazilian veteran, with the other coming to middleweight champ Anderson Silva at UFC 126. The fight will be nearly a year to the day from Belfort's UFC 142 win in Brazil over Anthony Johnson.


Bisping has been campaigning for a shot at Silva, and a win over Belfort could get him that shot. At UFC 152, the Brit beat Brian Stann by unanimous decision to get back in the win column after a close decision loss to Chael Sonnen in January. Bisping has wins in five of his past six fights.


The latest card for the UFC's return to Brazil now includes:


MAIN CARD
Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping
C.B. Dollaway vs. Daniel Sarafian
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ben Rothwell
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Thiago Tavares

PRELIMINARY CARD
Godofredo Castro vs. Milton Vieira
Andrew Craig vs. Ronny Markes
Nik Lentz vs. Diego Nunes
Edson Barboza vs. Justin Salas
Michael Kuiper vs. Thiago Perpetuo
Yuri Alcantara vs. George Roop
Roger Hollett vs. Wagner Prado
Francisco Trinaldo vs. C.J. Keith

Pretty weird that this is likely to be an FX show rather than a PPV or something. This main event is going to be pretty awesome, Bisping needs a win here if he loses he may never get that title shot he wants so bad.

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

Bisping-Belfort should be good, next MW Title challenger crowned in that fight (finally).

 

[The Cork]

Mehhhhh.

A lot not to care about on this card. No idea why Roger Hollett was given another chance after stinking the place out against Hamill. Dolloway absolutely sucks and the Mayhem fight was one of the worst I've ever seen...

Bisping should be fighting Weidmann or Belcher, not Belfort.

 

[Slim]

Belfort vs. Bisping... that is gonna light it up. Gonna make it nice.

Gonzaga vs. Big Ben... those are the only two fights I'm interested in.

 

[Dale]

Can't see Bisping getting a shot even if he wins this one. Seems the top 2 contenders are Bisping and Weidman so why those two aren't fighting to be officially be crowned the #1 Contender I have no idea.

 

[Troy]

I don't quite understand why they don't have the two top contenders face off either. Still Bisping and Belfort will be a good fight and Bisping will hopefully get the win.

 

[Slim]

Well Bisping has been known to choke and lose in the big fights. So maybe this is his test... to see if he can sustain and win a big fight.

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

Weidman needs 2-3 more good wins to even sniff a title shot.

 

[The Cork]

Well Bisping has been known to choke and lose in the big fights. So maybe this is his test... to see if he can sustain and win a big fight.

He arguably (clearly, IMO) beat Chael but got conned. Like already said in the thread, Dana seems to have a Weidmann boner, him vs Boetsch who had one of the worst fights of 2012 a few months ago makes zero sense.

Matchmaking in UFC recently has been horrible.

 

[Dale]

A tournament providing there's enough contenders should be done (whatever the division) as I think it would be cool, however I doubt the UFC would want to commit to that incase any injuries happen to fuck up the match ups.

 

[Slim]

I can agree that Bisping most likely should have won the fight against Sonnen. big fight against Wandy... and he lost again. Oh and there was the KO of the year he suffered against Hendo. He just needs to win a big name fight. Stann is the biggest name he has defeated.

 

[The Cork]

A tournament providing there's enough contenders should be done (whatever the division) as I think it would be cool, however I doubt the UFC would want to commit to that incase any injuries happen to fuck up the match ups.

I'd love to see it but with Bellator moving to Spike, Dana won't want to be seen "copying the opposition" by using the tournament format.

 

[Dod Draper]

Think this is a bad matchup for Bisping. Belfort is so quick and crisp with his rushes... if Bisping gets caught up in one of them, it's over. Bisping never looks at ease against dudes with heavy hands after the Hendo KO. The Wand fight was a good example of that.

 

[Troy]

Weidman needs 2-3 more good wins to even sniff a title shot.

There aren't really that many other options in the division. If it isn't Bisping then surely it would be Weidman, I can't see UFC going for any other guy against Silva for the title.

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

There aren't really that many other options in the division. If it isn't Bisping then surely it would be Weidman, I can't see UFC going for any other guy against Silva for the title.

That is true, if Weidman gets a shot it would be partly at least because there's simply no one else. Despite claims to the contrary MMA doesn't have a huge talent pool yet. All the great kick boxers stay in kick boxing all the great bjj guys stay in bjj.