UFC 161 Winnipeg: UFC Announces Second Canadian Show on June 15th in Manitoba

It was announced yesterday by Sportsnet's Joe Ferraro that the UFC has confirmed their second event for Canada in 2013.

UFC 161 will be held on June 15th, at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba and will mark the first time the UFC will hold an event in Manitoba.

True North Sports and Entertainment, the owners of the MTS Centre has called a press conference at 10:30 a.m. MT Tuesday to make the announcement.

With UFC 158 set to take place next weekend in Montreal, the June show will be the second event held in Canada 2013. Winnipeg joins Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary as the only Canadian cities to host a UFC event.

Two fights have been announced and confirmed for the card so far, a heavyweight match between Stipe Miocic and Soa Palelei and a light heavyweight match between Brazilian contenders Mauricio Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. There is no main event booked for the card yet, but rumours have begun to swirl about other possible match ups for the card including big name fights between welterweights Jake Shields and Tyron Woodley and Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson could possibly fight on the card as well.

Manitoba has held many successful MMA events in recent years, and sanctioning for the province is handled by Manitoba Combative Sports Commission.

Following a disappointing, injury riddled UFC 149 card in Calgary last July, UFC president Dana White said he wanted to make things up to the fans in Alberta.

There is no word yet whether the Winnipeg booking will preclude a return trip to Calgary in 2013.

UFC 161 will be a pay-per-view event, which typically suggests a high-profile main event. Stay tuned for future fight announcements for UFC 161.

Dwight Wakabayashi is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report UFC and regular contributor to Sportsnet.ca's UFC section. Follow him on Twitter @wakafightermma.