...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Despite Ed Soares' assertion that the Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen rematch will happen on June 23 in Rio de Janeiro, reports persist suggesting that the fight will indeed be moved.
Brazilian outlet "O Globo" reported on Thursday that the fight is expected to take place in Las Vegas, with the prevailing rumor being that it will now take place at UFC 148 on July 7.
Additionally, Soares' managing partner at Black House, Jorge Guimaraes, confirmed that there have been discussions about moving the fight, and revealed that UFC President Dana White is expected to announce the fate of the fight early next week.
"This situation is already being discussed," Guiamares said. "There are some speculations. What you heard, I heard too. It seems like there are no hotels to fit everybody with UN’s event, Rio+20."
"(Silva vs. Sonnen's venue and date) will be announced by Dana White in a press conference in Brazil. Nothing is confirmed yet."
Penick's Analysis: This could be a really big disappointment for the fans in Brazil if the fight is indeed being moved. It has already been announced for the June 23 date, it's been announced as a stadium event, now there aren't hotels available that weekend for an event of that magnitude. Moving this fight leaves them putting together a much lower profile event, it will majorly affect the revenues they were possibly going to see for this rematch in Brazil. I'm really not sure what they'll do with the other fights they were scheduling for this card, and it would be really bad if they were forced to move those fights and scratch the entire event. We'll see how this plays out, but it appears here we should know something more definitive next week.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
