Saturday night’s UFC 142 card in Brazil, the second time the organization has visited the country in the past six months, is highlighted by a featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes. Place your MMA mixed martial arts bets at WagerWeb.com.
UFC 142 will be the second UFC event in Rio in the last six months, following a span of nearly 13 years without an event in Brazil. Aldo, the featherweight champion and a native of Brazil, will be making his third official defense of the UFC featherweight title and his fifth title defense dating from his days in the WEC. The co-feature pits Brazilian Vitor Belfort against Anthony Johnson in a middleweight bout. Though on pay-per-view, the event marks the official beginning of UFC’s partnership with Fox, with preliminary bouts scheduled to air on cable network FX.
Aldo (20-1) will be making the fifth defense of his title. In his most recent defense, on Oct. 8 at UFC 136, Aldo defeated Kenny Florian by unanimous decision. If Aldo gets by Mendes, that will make 14 wins in a row, and five title defenses spanning both the UFC (3) and the WEC (2). Mendes is the No. 2-ranked featherweight, behind Aldo. He is 11-0.
“Chad Mendes has earned his shot at the title and he’s going to face one of the greatest featherweights of all time,” Aldo’s manager, Ed Soares, said. “It’s going to be a great fight. It’s going to be fireworks.”
Mendes beat each of his two UFC opponents (Michihiro Omigawa and Rani Yahya) by unanimous decision, since the promotion merged with WEC in January.
Meanwhile, Johnson has competed at welterweight, but consistently struggles to make the 170-pound limit. He knocked out Charlie Brenneman in the first round of their nontitle fight on Oct. 1 in Washington. At the prefight weigh-ins, Johnson (10-3) expressed relief after tipping the scale at 171 pounds.
Belfort (20-9) has competed at 205 pounds for the majority of his professional career. The former UFC light heavyweight champion made his middleweight debut in July 2008, while competing in Affliction. He is 4-1 since leaving the light heavyweight ranks. His lone loss came Feb. 5, when he was knocked out in the first round of a UFC middleweight title bout by champion Anderson Silva.
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