UFC on FX 8 To Take Place In Brazil In May
Posted by Joseph Lee on 03.05.2013
Two fights added...
MMA Junkie reports that UFC will return to Brazil on May 18 for UFC on FX 8: Belfort vs Rockhold at the Arena Jaraqua in Santa Catarina.
The main card features a middleweight fight between Vitor Belfort (22-10 MMA, 11-6 UFC) and Luke Rockhold (10-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC). It will air on FX after preliminary fights on FUEL TV and Facebook.
There are also fights between lightweights Mike Rio (9-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and Francisco Trinaldo (12-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) and light heavyweights Roger Hollett (13-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) and Fabio Maldonado (18-6 MMA, 1-3 UFC), which were just added.
Rio was a cast member on last year's The Ultimate Fighter Live. This will be his second UFC fight after a submission win over John Cofer at the TUF 16 Finale in December. This was his third straight win, not counting the fights on The Ultimate Fighter. He was injured on the show and couldn't compete at the season 15 finale and officially made his debut in December. Meanwhile, Trinaldo is a cast member of the TUF: Brazil season and is looking for his second win in a row. All three of his UFC fights have been in Brazil, including a second-round submission of C.J. Keith in January at UFC on FX 7. He has six wins in his past seven fights.
Hollett is trying to get a win after losing his UFC debut to Matt Hamill at UFC 152, who was returning from retirement and won via unanimous decision, ending a five-fight win streak.
Maldonado, meanwhile, can't afford a loss. He has had three in a row and a fourth could get him fired, especially after Dana White recently said that the promotion needs to lose about 100 fighters this year. Maldonado won his debut in October 2010 but lost by unanimous decision to Kyle Kingsbury and Igor Pokrajac after. He then had a fight stopped by a doctor for a TKO loss to Glover Teixeira at UFC 153 last October. He was praised for withstanding a brutal beating for ten minutes before the stoppage.
Here's the latest card:
Vitor Belfort vs. Luke Rockhold
Constantinos Philippou vs. Ronaldo Souza
Rafael dos Anjos vs. Evan Dunham
CB Dollaway vs. Cezar Ferreira
Lance Benoist vs. Paulo Thiago
Azamat Gashimov vs. John Lineker
Mike Rio vs. Francisco Trinaldo
Roger Hollett vs. Fabio Maldonado
