After being reported yesterday, the UFC held a press conference today in Winnipeg to officially announce that UFC 161 will come from the MTS Centre on June 15th.
This will be the UFC’s first trip to Winnipeg and the tickets for the event will go on sale to the public on April 12th.
“Canadians love their MMA and we love bringing it to them,” said UFC President Dana White. “There are many Canadian cities on our radar and we hope to visit as many as possible. We’re excited to make Winnipeg happen and can’t wait to bring a stacked card to the MTS Centre.”
During today’s press conference, UFC Director of Canadian Operations Tom Wright confirmed that one of the fights on the card will be former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua facing Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
This will be a rematch of their 2005 fight in Pride, which Shogun won by decision. The fight will be apart of the main card on pay-per-view and the main event is expected to be announced soon.
Rua (21-7) has gone 5-5 in the UFC since entering the organization in 2007 and has not won back to back fights since 2009. He is 3-3 in his last six with the losses coming against Jon Jones, Dan Henderson and Alexander Gustafsson. Two of those three losses were by decision and his fight against Henderson was the fight of the year in 2011.
Nogueira (21-5) is currently on a two fight winning streak and has won four of his six fights in the UFC. He recently defeated former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans at UFC 156 by decision, which was his biggest win in the UFC.
Stay tuned to TheMMAReport.com for updates on this fight card and what fight will be the main event in Winnipeg on June 15th.