SYDNEY ALLPHONES ARENA TO HOST UFC FIGHT NIGHT™: ROCKHOLD vs. BISPING ON NOVEMBER 8
Sydney, Australia – A war of words between top-ranked middleweight rivals will culminate in a five-round main event, as The Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®) organisation makes its long awaited return to Sydney, Australia on Saturday, November 8 at Allphones Arena with UFC FIGHT NIGHT: ROCKHOLD vs. BISPING.
Tickets, priced between $59.08 and $238.77, go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. AEST on Friday, September 12 via Ticketek.
Former STRIKEFORCE middleweight champion Luke Rockhold (12-2-0, fighting out of San Jose, California, USA) will finally meet brash Brit Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping (26-6-0, fighting out of Manchester, England) in one of the most anticipated match-ups of the 2014 calendar.
Currently ranked fifth in the middleweight division, Rockhold has defeated a who’s who of top-ranked 185-pounders, with notable wins against Jacare Souza, Tim Kennedy, Tim Boetsch and Costas Philippou. Bisping, The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 winner and perennial top-contender, is back in the winner’s column with a decisive win over Cung Le in Macau and looking to make another charge for the middleweight title.
UFC FIGHT NIGHT™: ROCKHOLD vs. BISPING will also feature a stacked fight card of elite Australian and international mixed martial artists, including:
• Moving up to the middleweight division, The Ultimate Fighter Smashes winner Robert Whittaker (13-4-0, fighting out of Sydney, Australia) takes on tenacious brawler Clint 'Headbussa' Hester (11-3-0, fighting out of Atlanta, USA), who’s riding a four-fight win streak.
• UFC veteran and Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Anthony 'The Hippo' Perosh (14-8-0, fighting out of Sydney, Australia) will meet striking sensation Guto Inocente (6-3-0, fighting out of Boca Raton, Florida, USA)
• Heavyweight machine Soa ‘The Hulk’ Palelei (21-4-0, fighting out of Perth, Australia) faces Polish powerhouse Daniel Omielanczuk (16-4-1 1 NC, fighting out of Warsaw, Poland)
• The second youngest athlete on the UFC roster, Jake ‘The Celtic Kid’ Matthews (8-0-0, fighting out of Melbourne, Australia), will look to keep his undefeated record intact against Brazilian submission expert Vagner ‘Ceara’ Rocha (11-3-0, fighting out of Pembroke Pines, Florida, USA)
• The Ultimate Fighter Nations Team Australia member Vik ‘The Spartan’ Grujic (7-4-0, fighting out of Melbourne, Australia) will meet Canadian speedster Chris ‘The Menace’ Clements (11-5-0 1NC, fighting out of London, Ontario, Canada)
• The Ultimate Fighter 17 semi-finalist Dylan ‘The Villain’ Andrews (18-6-0 1NC, fighting out of Gold Coast, Australia) will face Sam ‘Smile’N’ Alvey (23-6-0 1NC, fighting out of Temecula, California, USA), owner of nine first-round finishes
Additional bouts for UFC FIGHT NIGHT™: ROCKHOLD vs. BISPING will be announced in the coming weeks.
Since 2010, the UFC has hosted five live events in Australia with each experiencing tremendous success. Collectively, the five events have seen more than 66,000 fans in attendance and millions worldwide watching on Pay-Per-View and broadcast television. The three host cities to date – Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbane – have had a cumulative gross gate of more than $10M and millions more in economic impact. Australia’s sixth live UFC event, and fourth in Sydney in as many years, returns to Allphones Arena, where the UFC has previously set ticket and merchandise sale records.
For more information or current fight news, visit au.ufc.com. All bouts live and subject to change.
About the Ultimate Fighting Championship®
Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC®) is the premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization and largest pay-per-view event provider in the world. Headquartered in Las Vegas with offices in London, Toronto, Singapore and Sao Paulo, UFC produces more than 40 live events annually that consistently sell-out some of the most prestigious arenas around the globe. UFC programming is broadcast in 129 countries to nearly 800+ million TV households worldwide in 28 different languages. In Australia, the UFC has broadcast agreements with FOXTEL and MAIN EVENT, which includes live events broadcasts, The Ultimate Fighter® reality television show and thousands of hours of programming. In 2014, UFC launched UFC FIGHT PASS™, a digital subscription service with exclusive live events, thousands of fights on-demand and original content. The UFC organization also licenses over 100 UFC GYM® locations, and owns UFC.TV® (offering live event broadcasts and video on-demand around the world), UFC FIT™ (an in-home fitness and nutrition program), UFC Magazine, and has a videogame franchise with EA SPORTS, UFC Fight Club®, UFC Fan Expo®, Octagon™ branded apparel, DVDs and Blu-rays and Topps Trading Cards. For more information, visit au.ufc.com and follow UFC on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/UFC, on Twitter @UFC_Australia and Instagram @UFC.