MGM Slated for Two More UFC Pay-Per-Views

Immediately following its big Super Bowl weekend event, UFC 143, in Las Vegas, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has requested its next couple of pay-per-view dates for Sin City, according to Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer.

Kizer informed MMAWeekly.com on Monday that “the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), via Marc Ratner, has officially asked for the dates of Saturday, May 26 and Saturday, July 7, 2012 at the MGM Grand for pay per view cards.”

Although we already reported that the July 7 date was in the works, and UFC president Dana White over the weekend confirmed that a UFC Fan Expo would coincide with the July 7 event, it’s no surprise that May 26 is also on the docket.

The UFC has run pay-per-view events on Memorial Day weekend for years, the last few years of which have taken place at MGM’s Grand Garden Arena.

There have been no main events mentioned for either event with all the promotion’s current champions either sidelined or tied up in other bouts.

One likely scenario is TUF coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber battling for Cruz’s bantamweight belt on the May 26 event, coinciding with the end of the new “jive live” format Ultimate Fighter season.

A showdown between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen is expected for June in Sao Paolo, Brazil, but could become an option for either event if concerns over death threats to Sonnen become a factor.

Another option is heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos, who is also slated to face Alistair Overeem sometime around that timeframe.

Even Carlos Condit, who just competed over the weekend, could be a viable possibility for one of those events if he is willing to fight again instead of sitting out and waiting for UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre to come back from injury, likely this fall/winter.

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