Many sources including Yahoo! Sports and the Canadian Press Press are reporting that Machida-Shogun II will be held at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on May 1st, 2010.
Long-term, the UFC will be fine. White will have Silva and St. Pierre return in 2010. He said Lyoto Machida will give a rematch for his light heavyweight belt to Mauricio Shogun Rua on May 1 in Montreal. Machida won a close decision last month in Los Angeles.
It appears the UFC is ready to return to the Montreal in May of 2010.
According to The Canadian Press, light heavyweight champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida will take on Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in a rematch of the main event of UFC 104.
Machida (16-0) escaped their first meeting with a victory, but the result was questioned by many, including the majority of the crowd in attendance, who booed the judge’s unanimous decision in favour of the 31-year old champion. Many UFC fighters sitting ringside also voiced their belief that Shogun (18-4) had done enough to earn the decision and the light heavyweight title.
Due to the controversial ending and the evenly-matched nature of the bout, both fighters have agreed to enter the octagon against each other once again.
Payout Perspective
The month of May has tradtionally been a very strong month for the UFC in terms of PPV buyrates, but if it’s one thing the UFC can absolutely count on, it’s ticket sales in Montreal.
However, with Montreal in May, it now seems unlikely that we’ll see Vancouver in June. Just looking at event patterns alone, back-to-back Canadian dates would be the first time the organization has ever done two events in a row outside of the US (and two back-to-back events in one state other than Nevada since California had UFC 59 and 60 in 2006).
Glad to see there is going to be an immediate rematch.