The UFC is moving up Ronda Rousey's next fight to November at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, and hopes to break its attendance record in the process.
Rousey's fight vs. Holly Holm
originally was scheduled as the main event for UFC 195 on Jan. 2 in Las
Vegas. But UFC president Dana White announced that with a chance to
shatter the attendance record, the promotion decided to move Rousey's
fight to the Melbourne card instead when the welterweight title fight
between champion Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit was postponed due to a thumb injury suffered by Lawler.
"She will break the all-time attendance record for the sport of
mixed martial arts," White said on ESPN on Friday night. "Obviously
Ronda Rousey was huge for us down in Brazil, she was well received
there, it was just a phenomenal event. It did very well on pay-per-view
here in the United States. She's obviously a huge superstar for us and
Australia's an important market for us so we're going to bring her out
there.
"Our first real big stadium show. We know that she'll break the record."
UFC 193 will take place Nov. 15 at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne.
(Due to the time difference, the live pay-per-view event will be
broadcast in the United States on Nov. 14.) The card already was touted
as one of the biggest of all time. The stadium holds more than 56,000
fans at capacity but the UFC card may bring in bigger attendance with
additional seating on the normal playing field area where the Octagon
will sit.
The current record for attendance for the UFC is 55,724 at UFC 129 in a 2011 show headlined by Georges St-Pierre against Jake Shields when the promotion landed in Toronto at the Rogers Centre.
Rousey has become one of the world's most prominent female
athletes while winning her past three bouts in a combined 64 seconds.
She stopped Bethe Correia
in 34 seconds on Aug. 1. Now Rousey (12-0) will go after her seventh
title defense against Holm (9-0), the boxing champion from New Mexico.
UFC officials told FOX Sports that a new main event will be announced for UFC 195 in the coming weeks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Original port by Damon Martin of Fox Sports can be seen here: http://www.foxsports.com/ufc/story/ufc-ronda-rousey-vs-holly-holm-shifts-to-ufc-193-in-australia-to-break-attendance-record-082815
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