The UFC is finally coming to Mexico.
Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum were named the coaches for The Ultimate Fighter Latin America, the UFC announced at a press conference in Mexico City Tuesday.
UFC president Dana White also confirmed Velasquez will defend his heavyweight title against Werdum at UFC 180 on Nov. 15 at the promotion’s debut event in Mexico. The event will take place at Arena México in Mexico City, a venue with an approximate capacity of 16,500.
Tickets for the event will go on sale the week of Aug. 26. In addition to the Velasquez-Werdum matchup, the TUF Latin America finals will take place on the card. No other fights have been planned to date.
Velasquez (13-1) defended his title against Junior dos Santos at UFC 166 last October. He has been inactive in 2014 after undergoing shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum. Velasquez is of Mexican decent and said fighting in his parents’ homeland is “a dream come true.”
Werdum (18-5-1) is coming off a dominant unanimous decision win over Travis Browne on April 19 in Orlando. The Brazilian has won four straight and seven of his last eight fights.
TUF Latin America will be the seventh international edition of the popular MMA reality show, which is designed to develop new talent for the UFC. Filming for the show begins May 12 in Las Vegas and it will debut Aug. 18. The season will feature 16 fighters (eight featherweights and eight bantamweights) who will compete for two six-figure UFC contracts.
Contestants on TUF Latin America need to be citizens of Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay or Venezuela.
“Latin America has become a huge market for the UFC and we’re excited to take it to the next level with The Ultimate Fighter,” the UFC’s senior vice-president of international development and GM of Latin America Jaime Pollack said in a press release in February when the UFC initially announced plans for TUF Latin America. “With the successful launch of the UFC Network, and the tremendous growth of our fan base, our focus has now moved to finding and developing the top talent in this market. We want to find the next star, the next fighter who will do what Anderson Silva did for Brazil. We want to give the fans a homegrown hero.”
