Sonnen vs. Silva at UFC Rio and 10 Places the UFC Needs to Go in 2012

Dana White has long had the vision that UFC and mixed martial arts will one day become the biggest sport on the planet. It's a long term goal obviously. It may never happen within Dana White's lifetime.  

But mixed martial arts may very well get there. The oldest sport in the world is combat sports.  

People just have a need to know who the baddest man on the planet really is. Who's daddy can beat up everyone else's daddy?  

You have instant appeal with most people because of those things.  

So what can the UFC do to grow the sport everywhere in the world?  

For starters, having major UFC events in as many different countries as possible. There are very few nations on this planet who wouldn't love to host a UFC event.

Then you put the UFC event in the largest modern stadium you think you can fill.

The bar was set pretty high in 2011. The UFC booked the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, and they sold all 55,000 tickets a week after they went on sale.  

If you can do it once, you can do it again. You can go even bigger than that!

So with that in mind, I submit to you the top 10 places the UFC absolutely must go in 2012.

Honorable Mentions Locations

The UFC should seriously consider doing a major event in Mexico City, Mexico. If Cain Velasquez is still champion in 2012, having Cain defend his title in Mexico City would help to generate increased interest in the UFC in our neighbor to the south.  

The UFC has already seen good success putting on events in Ireland in the past. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a card in Dublin in 2012.

Paris, France is a city that absolutely loves to showcase itself before a world audience. It would make a great host city for a UFC event.

Having another card anywhere in Germany would be a good move as well.  

There are a number of good fighters coming out of Poland recently. Having a UFC card in Poland wouldn't be a bad idea.   

Building up a stronger fan base everywhere in Europe is just good business sense. Putting an event on in any country you haven't been to yet would be a great move for the UFC. Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, etc. Any of these would be great, and you really can't lose no matter where you go in Europe.

The Phillipines is one of those places with a lot of fight fans, but not enough fights. "Thrilla in Manila" UFC-style would be a brilliant move!

The UFC has done well in Australia, so why not give New Zealand a try?

There is growing support for the UFC and MMA in Muslim nations. Turkey and Morocco would both be pretty ideal hosts for a UFC event.  

10. UFC Amsterdam

First off, the UFC needs to do put on an event in the Netherlands. 

Why the Netherlands? Because the popularity of martial arts is already huge in that nation.  

The Dutch have made great strides improving and perfecting Muay Thai Kickboxing, one of the pillar fighting styles of mixed martial arts.  

And the Dutch have proved their version of Muay Thai Kickboxing is the best by dominating kickboxing worldwide for decades.    

Since 1993, the pinnacle of kickboxing worldwide has been the Japanese promotion known as K-1. The four most legendary kickboxers in K-1 history are  Semmy Schilt, Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost and Remy Bonjasky—all of them Dutch.  

Last year's K-1 Tournament winner was Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem, another Dutchman.

And that leads to my next point: The Dutch have also had a significant impact on mixed martial arts, with such greats as Bas Rutten, Alistair Overeem, Stefan Struve, Gilbert Yvel and Melvin Manhoef all making their mark in the sport.

With Alistair Overeem making his debut against Brock Lesnar later this year, now is the time for a UFC event in the Netherlands!

Have Alistair Overeem headline a card in Amsterdam sometime next year. Bring in as many Dutch fighters as possible—and there are plenty of them of course. Invite Bas Rutten to call the fight alongside Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg.

In future years, just keep putting on shows in Amsterdam year after year and eventually. Just keep focused on the ultimate goal: Having major UFC events in Amsterdam Arena with its seating capacity of 68,000. 

You have to start somewhere, and 2012 is the ideal year for the UFC to get their foot in the door.

9. UFC Australia

In the process of making the UFC a truly international organization, it's very important to keep returning to places they have already been visited.

Australian MMA fans have shown up in force to support the UFC events scheduled there.  

The UFC just needs to keep going back to Australia regularly. Keep drawing talented fighters from all over Australia as well.  

And they should focus on trying to put on events in front of bigger and bigger crowds.  

When UFC 127 was held in Australia, there was the highly successful Australian fighter George Sotiropoulos on a seven-fight win streak to help draw Aussie fans to the event.  

George has since lost two fights in a row. No longer a title contender, George desperately needs a win to keep his job in the UFC.  

One minute you're on top of the world, and the next, you're struggling to survive. That's the way it goes in the UFC.

Obviously, they can still put George on the card, but he is unlikely to have the same impact as he did a year ago.

There are other options certainly, but to put big name fighters on the card, the UFC is going to have to do some serious recruiting. 

Half Cuban, half Australian Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard would be absolutely perfect, but they'll have to figure out how to steal him away from Bellator.

If the UFC can get Hector, then by all means put him on your next Australian card as a co-main event. Then add George Sotiropoulos, Peter Graham, Mark Hunt and the best local fighters that can be found.  

The long-term goal is holding a major UFC event in some of Australia's enormous stadiums: Stadium Australia with its capacity of 85,000, and maybe one day the 100,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground, the world's eighth largest stadium.

It might sound crazy, but with time and persistence, the UFC will fill big arenas like those and they'll get there sooner than you might think.

8. UFC London

The UFC has put on a lot of cards in the United Kingdom, and they should definitely continue to do so.  

The British love this sport; there is no question about it, and the British Isles have produced some of the most talented mixed martial artists in the sport's history, such as Michael Bisping, Paul Daley, Dan Hardy, Terry Etim, Paul Kelly, Ronnie Mann, Paul Reed, Andre Winner, Lee Murray, Ian Freeman, Paul Taylor, James Wilks and Ross Pearson.

The UFC has absolutely no shortage of British fighters and is doing a great job whenever they put on an event in the UK. They just need to keep doing what they're doing and make sure do a minimum of one event in the United Kingdom every year.

Two thing that could stand some improvement: Figure out a way to do a lot more events in the UK every year and start focusing on having events in larger and larger stadiums.  

When the UFC is consistently selling out 20,000 seat arenas, it's time to start thinking bigger.  

The ultimate prize the UFC should set their sights on is pretty obvious: to put on a major UFC event in front of a sold out crowd in Wembley Stadium. Soccer and football game capacity for Wembley is 90,000, so a UFC event would probably seat closer to 95,000.  

Eventually achieving this goal could be a lot of fun actually. Consider that the NFL has been trying to get American football to catch on in Europe for decades, but have had almost no success at all.  

The USA, and to a lesser degree Canada, are the only countries that seem to take any interest in American football, but the NFL will diligently continue trying anyway.

I think filling up Wembley Stadium would be a great triumph, showcasing the international appeal of MMA and the UFC. It is Wembley stadium where the NFL currently schedules one game every year. A sold out UFC event in that same stadium would demonstrate very clearly that the UFC's success at becoming a massively popular mainstream sport in every nation on the planet, something that the NFL will probably never achieve.

7. Rogers Centre: Toronto, Canada

UFC 129 set the record for the largest crowd to attend a UFC event in the company's history. Filling up the home stadium of the Toronto Blue Jays proved beyond all doubt how big the UFC has gotten in Canada.  

It also offers tremendous inspiration for future events.  

So if the UFC can sell all 55,724 tickets to an event and they were selling them as quickly as the UFC could print them, then clearly the UFC should start targeting bigger and bigger location elsewhere.

But while you're at it, how about an encore performance? Put another Georges St Pierre fight inside the Rogers Centre and make history once again.

And there's even bigger fish to fry in Canada.  

Olympic Stadium in Montreal seats 66,308 for football games and probably would hold closer to 70,000 for a UFC event.  

Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton is also bigger than the Rogers Centre, with a football game capacity of about 60,000.

Canada has proven that events in places as large or larger than the Rogers Centre absolutely are possible and demonstrates how rapidly the sport is growing outside the USA.

6. UFC Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi Combat Club is part owner of the UFC. They've been very supportive of the sport of mixed martial arts, and they have played host to the highest level submissions grappling tournament in the world since 1998.

It's about time for the UFC to get back to Abu Dhabi to set right what went so terribly wrong at UFC 112: Invincible. As most of you will remember, that was the main event were Anderson Silva acted like a complete idiot in his title defense against Demian Maia, drawing boos from the crowd and effectively ruining the UFC's first event in Abu Dhabi.

The UFC needs to knock one out of the park this time. They need to put on a UFC card that will not have paying customers walking away disappointed and disgusted.  

A title defense by Frankie Edgar or the winner of Junior dos Santos vs Cain Velasquez would be ideal as these fighters are well known for never having a boring fight. Jon Jones is also strong candidate for an Abu Dhabi main event.

With the growing number of MMA fighters coming from either Arab or Muslim heritage, you should have a good pool of such fighters to draw from. For most of them, fighting in Abu Dhabi would be a lot like fighting in front of their hometown crowd.  

King Mo Lawal, Ramsey Nijem, Amir Sadollah and Kamal Shalorus are a few examples of fighters that the UFC already has.

No doubt there are plenty of up and coming fighters from the UAE and nearby countries that you could put on the undercard in Abu Dhabi.

In addition to that, any fighters who made a big name for themselves in the ADCC championships would be perfect candidates for a fight on an Abu Dhabi card. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza making his UFC debut against Demian Maia would be epic! A UFC debut of Roger Gracie or a re-debut of Fabricio Werdum would be great moves as well.  

The arena that hosted UFC 112 doesn't exist anymore. It doesn't really matter where the UFC puts its next show in Abu Dhabi; the important thing right now is just having one and making it a good one.

A good long term goal would be to have a sold out event at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in front of more than 50,000 fans.  

5. UFC Moscow Russia

There are precious few nations with a prouder and stronger tradition of mixed martial arts than Russia. Taken together with the rest of the former provinces of the USSR, only the USA and Brazil surpass them at producing the most elite level MMA fighters on the planet.

The national sport in Russia is Sambo, and Sambo is just a more limited version of mixed martial arts.  

I'll forego listing all of the elite level Russian fighters past and present. There are just too many of them. Suffice it to say that Russian Fedor Emelianenko, Belorussian Andrei Arlovski and Ukrainian Igor Vovchanchyn all belong on any credible list of the all-time top 12 best Heavyweights in MMA history.

A prospective "UFC Moscow" would be a great way to recognize the contribution of the Russian fighters and fans to our sport.  

There's some bridges to rebuild, though. Dana White has had a lot of negative things to say about Fedor Emelianenko. Now I'm not going to say Dana was right or wrong, but if you want to break into the Russian MMA scene, you probably want Dana to kiss and make up with Fedor fans around the world.

Once the UFC gets the green light to put on an event in Moscow, everything else gets a lot easier. If you wanted to, you could fill an entire card with fighters from Russia and other former USSR provinces. 

But of course, you can do one better than that: Fill out the card with Russian vs USA match ups and let the 70-year rivalry that began in the Cold War sell your tickets for you.

USA vs Russia? What's not to love about that?  

Ultimately, the UFC should set their sights on selling out the 78,360 capacity domed Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow for a major UFC event.

4. UFC China

The vast majority of all martial arts in the world today can trace their roots to Chinese martial arts.  

The Chinese people are very aware of this fact, and they are very proud of their martial arts legacy.

Selling a martial arts event anywhere in China is like giving away free sandwiches in a giant crowd of starving people. It's just too easy!

There is no doubt that the UFC can be massively successful in China, a nation that absolutely loves Wushu (Kung Fu) competitions. And there should no doubt be plenty of superb local fighters to put on your first UFC event in China.

Now China has a lot to learn before they become a dominant force in the UFC, but I think we can confidently anticipate that Chinese fighters will one day equal Russia and Brazil's dominance in the UFC and MMA in general. Give it time and you will see.

China is one of those nations where you can have events all over the place: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tianjin

But since we're trying to set specific goals, how about one day filling Guangzhou's Guangdong Olympic Stadium—the largest stadium in China's largest city. That's an 80,012 capacity stadium in the heart of a metro area of 41,230,000 people!  

Not a bad goal to work towards.  

3. UFC Japan

The last time that the UFC visited Japan was UFC 29 on Dec. 16, 2000.  

In fact, the UFC has not returned to Japan in the entire Zuffa era.

Japan has long been one of mixed martial arts biggest proponents. The Japanese were doing MMA almost a decade before people in the USA ever heard of MMA.  

Shooto—arguably the world's oldest mixed martial arts organization—began putting on fights in Japan way back in 1985, eight years before UFC 1.  

During the first years of the UFC's existence, a Japanese promotion known as Pancrase was the strongest promotion in the world.

And the only MMA promotion that nearly usurped the UFC's destiny as the pinnacle of MMA world-wide was another Japanese organization known as Pride FC. The collapse of Pride FC is one of the most legendary riches to ruins stories in the history of mixed martial arts.

Suffice it to say that there is already plenty of interest in mixed martial arts in Japan. The UFC has been absent from the island nation for far too long.  

The UFC has already targeted one of the greatest Meccas of the sport—the 37,000 seat Saitama Super Arena—as the location for a UFC event sometime in February.

Now there are plenty of very talented Japanese fighters that the UFC can put on that card. That part will be easy.  

But there are several things that would be a very good ideas for the main card. Most importantly, try to sign Shinya Aoki. You might offer him an instant title shot or a rematch against Gilbert Melendez.  Aoki is the most popular fighter in all of Japan today, so it is just good business sense to throw the kitchen sink and everything else at getting this kid into the UFC.

Some tip of the cap recognition of Kazushi Sakuraba, the greatest Japanese fighter ever, would certainly be well received.

And giving Rampage Jackson at least half of his recent request would be in order. As many of you may recall, after his loss to Champion Jon Jones, Quinton asked for a fight with Shogun Rua, and he asked for it to happen on the next UFC card in Japan.  

With Shogun already booked to fight Dan Henderson at UFC 139, it might not be possible for Shogun to make it. But that's no reason you can't put Quinton Jackson on that card.

I would suggest putting on a second UFC event in Japan's Saitama Super Arena 2012 and target Shogun vs Rampage II to happen on that card.

After doing two shows in Japan in 2012, just keep coming back as often as possible.

2. Putting New York on Notice: UFC New Jersey at New Meadowlands Stadium

There are two great paradoxes in American sports today.

1. MMA is still illegal in the state of New York.
2. Neither of New York City's NFL football teams actually play in the state of New York.

Behold New Meadowlands Stadium. With an impressive 82,500 capacity, this is the new home of the New York Giants as well as the New York Jets.

It is also located in New Jersey, a state that has welcomed mixed martial arts events since 2000.  

So how about killing two birds with one stone? How about trying to shatter Toronto's record attendance of 55,000 by putting a UFC event in the New Meadowlands Stadium.

Put New York native Jon Jones on the card. Put New Jersey native Frankie Edgar on the card.  Load the card with fighters from New York and surrounding areas. Hell, you might even have Eli Manning as a special guest referee or something. The point is, you do everything possible to fill all 82,500 seats.

Timing is everything, and your best bet would be late June or early July when the NFL, NHL, NBA and college football Seasons aren't in season and sports fans in the USA are looking for something to watch.

If you sell out New Meadowlands Stadium and you're selling tickets for about the same price that you did at UFC 129 in the Rogers Centre, then your live gate would be $18 million.

That's a lot of money, and if there's one thing that New York politicians can't stand missing out on, it's making money by taxing anything that moves. With any luck, seeing the numbers will even give Bob Reilly a fatal heart attack.

This is what we call hitting the fast-forward button for legalizing MMA in the state of New York.  

Sometimes, you have to beat stubborn lawmakers over the head with a money stick, and I think it's time to start beating away!

1. Sonnen vs Silva II in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

If I could go on vacation anywhere in the world, Rio de Janeiro would definitely be close to the top of my list, and I know that I'm not alone there.  

You couldn't possibly invent a better place to have a UFC event. In the nation that gave us mixed martial arts and the UFC, you have a city that people all over the world love to vacation in.  

Just imagine it—go to the next UFC Rio event and then stick around and enjoy a week or two in paradise.  

When you put a UFC event in Rio, you're not just selling tickets to Brazilians. You're giving MMA fans everywhere in the world an excuse to book their next vacation in Rio de Janeiro.

But that's not the biggest reason Rio is at the top of this list. There is a small window of opportunity for the UFC to cash in big-time by booking an event in Rio.

What opportunity, you say?

It's very simple, really. The hottest topic in MMA today is the reality-warping powers of Chael Sonnen's big mouth. Chael's diatribes are fun for a laugh, but pretty disturbing if taken too seriously. Chael's trash talking has done something completely unprecedented in MMA history: He's managed to piss off an entire nation of 200 million people!

With a Brazil-hating villain like Chael, you can shatter all MMA records for ticket sales simply by putting Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva as the headliner of a UFC event in Rio early next year.  Book the event in 82,000 seat Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro and you will sell every ticket, I promise!  There is no other event in 2012 that is much of sure thing.  

The even better news? Since there is no major time zone shift, the UFC can put this live on pay per view during the regular 10 p.m. time slot.

If Chael says he doesn't want to fight Anderson in Brazil, Dana White gets to ask one of his favorite questions, "How bad do you want this title shot, Chael?" Sonnen will do it; of that I have no doubt. Just make sure to keep him safe while he's in Brazil, and everything should be just fine.

Now, there is a possibility that Maracanã Stadium will still be closed for renovations, so if you need a backup plan, you could go with Mineirão Stadium in  Belo Horizonte, which will seat 69,950.  

If you absolutely must keep the event in Rio, then there is Engenhão Stadium, which seats 45,000, but it would be such a shame to waste this opportunity by booking a location that small for it.

The UFC already has loads of fans in Brazil. If you want to gain millions of new UFC fans in Brazil, you want to schedule Sonnen vs Silva in Rio!  

After that, just keep doing UFC events in Brazil. MMA is already so popular in Brazil; the only way you can go wrong is by not returning to Brazil.