The Ultimate Fighting Championship made its Jan. 19 event in Brazil official on Saturday, announcing Vitor Belfort will meet fellow middleweight Michael Bisping in the main event. The city and venue will be announced in the coming weeks.
This event marks the second consecutive year that a Brazilian event kicks off the UFC’s calendar worldwide — last year UFC 142 took place on Jan. 14 in Rio de Janeiro.
Belfort (21-10) is coming off a fourth-round submission loss to light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 152 in September. Belfort took that fight on short notice and nearly pulled off the upset after locking in an armbar early in the first round — a submission hold that did damage to the champ’s elbow and biceps. Every one of Belfort’s losses have been to current or former UFC, Strikeforce or UFC tournament champions.
Bisping (23-4) also competed at UFC 152 except he came out on the winning end. The Englishman defeated Brian Stann by unanimous decision.
“As we had anticipated, 2013 will be a very busy year for the Brazilian fans” said the UFC’s managing director of international development Marshall Zelaznik. “We are very happy about this Jan. 19 event, which will kick off our calendar for this year like UFC Rio 2 did in 2012. There are still a few details to be settled before we decide the host city. We expect to announce the venue over the next weeks”.
Also added to the card was Canadian Roger Hollett taking on Wagner Prado, and Daniel Sarafian will make his UFC debut after a strong showing on The Ultimate Fighter Brazil.
Here is what the fight card looks like to date:
MAIN CARD
— Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping
— C.B. Dollaway vs. Daniel Sarafian
— Ben Rothwell vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
— Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Thiago Tavares
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Godofredo (Pepey) Castro vs. Milton Vieira
— Andrew Craig vs. Ronny Markes
— Nik Lentz vs. Diego Nunes
— Justin Salas vs. Edson Barboza
— Michael Kuiper vs. Thiago Perpetuo
— George Roop vs. Yuri Alcantara
— Roger Hollett vs. Wagner Prado
— C.J. Keith vs. Francisco Trinaldo
In other UFC news:
A matchup between popular featherweights Leonard Garcia and Cody McKenzie has been added to UFC 155.
Plus, the UFC announced Kyung Ho Kang pulled out of his UFC on FUEL TV 6 fight with Alex Caceres and has been replaced by Motonobu Tezuka.
New fights… Kang injured, new UFC Macao bout is Alex Caceres vs. Motonobu Tezuka. Plus Leonard Garcia vs. Cody McKenzie on for UFC 155
— UFC (@ufc) November 3, 2012
