New home of Palmeiras, Allianz Park will be opened in 2014. Photo: Disclosure
The complete UFC calendar for 2015 will only be released on November 17th, but the organization is already starting to give clues on how it plans to distribute its seven visits to Brazil. According to the organization's director of international development Marshall Zelaznik, unlike what happened in recent years, when it hosted an annual edition, the city of São Paulo (SP) can host two events and there is a good chance that one of them will take place in the new arena of Palmeiras, which is about to be opened.
“For next year, we have been waiting for the opening of the Palmeiras arena for a long time. I know they are opening now for some football games and that is definitely in our plans. We hope to have two events in São Paulo next year”, assured the director in a press conference after UFC Fight Night 56, last Saturday (08), in Uberlândia (MG).
If the promotion of an event in the new Palmeiras arena is confirmed, it will be the realization of an old dream of the organization: hosting an event in a football stadium. A few months ago, it was speculated that Arena da Baixada, Atlético-PR's stadium in Curitiba (PR), could be the venue for UFC 179. The information, however, was not confirmed and the card took place in Rio de Janeiro. January, at the Maracanãzinho gym. At a UFC event, Allianz Park, which has a capacity for just over 46 thousand fans at football games, could have a capacity for up to 55 thousand fans.
To date, São Paulo has hosted four UFC events. The first of them, in 1998, at Ginásio do Canindé, even predates the use of the term MMA. Subsequently, the largest organization on the planet arrived once a year in the largest Brazilian city from 2013 onwards, with two events at the Ibirapuera Gymnasium. In addition, the city of Barueri, in greater São Paulo, also registered two other events, one of them in another last year and another scheduled for December 20th.
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