UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will have the opportunity to compete in front of a record crowd in her next fight.
Her upcoming title defence against former world boxing champion Holly Holm will now headline UFC 193 on Nov. 14 at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
The bout was originally named the main event of UFC 195 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Jan. 2, however UFC president Dana White announced the change late Friday night.
Etihad Stadium has a retractable-roof and plays host to four Australian Football League teams. The venue typically sits 56,000, but White says the UFC will be able to fit 70,000 fans into the stadium.
White mentions in his tweet that the event will “break all-time attendance record for an MMA event,” however that is incorrect. The current record attendance for an MMA event is 91,107 at a Pride FC event in 2002. Ironically, that event took place on Aug. 28 — exactly 13 years (to the day) prior to White making the announcement.
A welterweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit was originally scheduled to headline the UFC’s debut in Melbourne.
According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Lawler suffered a thumb injury and that fight has been scratched.
White had said Rousey would fight her rival Miesha Tate for a third time, but Rousey and the UFC surprised the mixed martial arts community when she announced her matchup with Holm last week during an appearance on Good Morning America.
Holm is 9-0 in MMA and 2-0 in the UFC, but is still developing into a well-rounded mixed martial artist. Her two UFC wins came via decision and she did nothing to impress the masses in those two bouts.
Understandably, Rousey will enter her fight with Holm as a massive favourite.
“She’s not the average chick that I would fight,” Rousey said on Good Morning America. “She’s the best striker I’ve ever fought, and striking is something that I learned much later in my career…I don’t ever expect fights to be easy and fast. No one knows exactly how the fights are going to go, and that’s why people buy them…I prepare for a five-round war every time I get in there. No one is easy until after you beat them.”
The current attendance record for a UFC event is 55,724, set at UFC 129 in Toronto in 2011.
