On the heels of tonight’s successful STRIKEFORCE® event at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., the Ultimate Fighting Championship® announced that it will return to the venue on Wednesday, July 11 with an action-packed card. Headlined by an explosive five-round fight between middleweight contenders Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman, the event will also showcase San Jose’s own Jon Fitch battling Aaron Simpson in welterweight action.
All four competitors were standouts in collegiate wrestling and have since made the impressive transition to mixed martial arts. Munoz won a Division I national championship in 2001 at Oklahoma State, while Weidman, unbeaten at 8-0 in his professional MMA career, was a two-time All-American at Hofstra. The winner of their clash on July 11 is expected to emerge as a top challenger to the middleweight title.
San Jose’s Fitch captained the 2002 Purdue University wrestling team, and his opponent on July 11, Simpson, was a two-time All-American at Arizona State who also competed at the 2004 Olympic trials. Both look to climb the ranks in the highly-competitive UFC 170-pound division when they meet at “The Shark Tank.”
The main card, which airs live on FUEL TV at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, will include:
• Middleweight five-round fight: Mark Munoz vs. Chris Weidman
• Light heavyweight bout: Brandon Vera vs. James Te Huna
• Welterweight bout: San Jose’s Jon Fitch vs. Aaron Simpson
• Middleweight bout: Karlos Vemola vs. Francis Carmont
• Bantamweight bout: Sacramento’s TJ Dillashaw vs. Vaughan Lee
• Lightweight bout: Paul Taylor vs. Anthony Njokuani
*Additional fights to be announced in the weeks to come at www.ufc.com
Tickets for UFC® on FUEL: MUNOZ vs. WEIDMAN go on sale Thursday, May 24 at 10 a.m. PT. and are priced at $175, $100, $75 and $50. Tickets will be available at the HP Pavilion ticket office, all Ticketmaster locations, online at Ticketmaster.com or charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000.
UFC® Fight Club™ members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to this event Tuesday, May 22 at 10 a.m. PT via the website www.ufcfightclub.com. A special Internet ticket pre-sale will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers Wednesday, May 23, starting at 10 a.m. PT. To access this presale, users must register for the UFC newsletter through UFC.com.
For more information or current fight news, visit www.ufc.com. All bouts live and subject to change.