THE CANADIAN PRESS

LAS VEGAS -- The UFC's Canadian debut April 19 in Montreal will be the UFC's biggest ever, UFC president Dana White predicted Thursday.

"It's going to be crazy. Twenty-two thousand, we're going to sell it out," White told The Canadian Press after a news conference for Saturday's UFC 81 show at the Mandalay Bay. "We're going to sell out the Bell Centre."

The UFC's current attendance record of 19,049 was set at UFC 68 on March 3, 2007, at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio -- a show that produced the biggest crowd ever for a mixed martial arts event in North America. The gate of US3 million-plus was also tops for the Columbus arena, erasing the previous record held by the Rolling Stones.

"Canada will be the (attendance) record. Canada will be the biggest UFC event ever," said White.

Tickets for UFC 83: Serra vs. St. Pierre 2 in Montreal have yet to go on sale, although members of the UFC's fan Fight Club can take part in a pre-sale starting Sunday. More ticket information is expected Monday when White and headline fighters Georges St. Pierre and Matt Serra hold a news conference in Montreal.

Serra upset St. Pierre at UFC 69 in April in Houston to win the 170-pound title. But when Serra injured his back and had to withdraw from a scheduled bout with Matt Hughes at UFC 79 in December, St. Pierre stepped in and beat Hughes to claim the interim title. Serra and St. Pierre will now decide the championship for real in Montreal, St. Pierre's home town.

White says the early word on Canadian ticket sales is very bright, saying the organization is getting bombarded with inquiries asking not when tickets go on sale, but how many can people buy.

"We've been dying to go there. Now that we're going, I think the fans are going to be insane up there. I think it's going to be great, I'm excited," he said.

The Montreal card also features former middleweight champion Rich Franklin against Travis Lutter, White confirmed.

Middleweight Jason (The Athlete) MacDonald has confirmed he is taking on Winnipeg's Joe Doerksen on the undercard while other reports have Toronto lightweight Marc Bocek facing Mac Danzig, lightweight Sam Stout of London, Ont., facing Rich Clementi, middleweight Kalib Starnes of Surrey, B.C., fighting Nate Quarry and welterweight Jonathan Goulet of Victoriaville, Que., tackling Kuniyoshi Hironaka.

"When you're going to have that many eyeballs and that much focus on an event, we want to make the Canadians stars in Canada," White said.

Despite the Canadian fan interest, the UFC president believes Canadian sponsors have a way to go to appreciate a fighter like St. Pierre.

"That kid is such a home run for sponsors, man," he said. "You've got a kid from Canada that's as good-looking, athletic and fights like this kid fights and he's not the darling of Canada. It's beyond me. I don't get it."

Light-heavyweight Mauricio (Shogun) Rua is also rumoured to be on the Montreal card.