...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC will officially return to Rio de Janeiro on August 3, as the organization confirmed plans for the UFC 163 event during Saturday's post-UFC on FX 8 press conference.
In addition to confirming the event location, the Featherweight Championship bout between Jose Aldo and Anthony Pettis was confirmed, as well as a welterweight bout between Demian Maia and Josh Koscheck.
The Aldo-Pettis fight came about this spring after Pettis expressed interest in the fight. As the top lightweight contender following his first round stoppage of Donald Cerrone, Pettis wanted to latch onto a guaranteed title fight, and the UFC liked the idea of him against Aldo and put the fight together.
Maia-Koscheck is somewhat of an odd booking given Maia's three fight winning streak at welterweight while Koscheck has lost two straight. However, Koscheck remains a known commodity, and Maia defeated his friend and former teammate Jon Fitch in February.
Though this is the fourth UFC event in Brazil of 2013, and the first of the year in Rio de Janeiro. However, it will be only nine and a half months in between events in the city, as the UFC brought UFC 153 to the city just last October.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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