Report: UFC on Versus 2 Moved from Salt Lake City to San Diego
The August 1 UFC on Versus 2 event, headlined by rising light heavyweight Jon Jones vs. veteran Vladimir Matyushenko, has been shifted from Salt Lake City, Utah to San Diego, California, according to Heavy.com, with an official announcement expected to be made soon.
After being announced in March for Oakland, California, UFC on Versus 2 was moved to Salt Lake City when the Oakland’s Oracle Arena was booked to host “UFC 117: Silva vs. Sonnen” on August 6, but the Sunday Versus-televised event is now apparently headed to a venue to-be-announced in San Diego.
The UFC on Versus 2 fight card also features Mark Munoz vs. Yushin Okami, John Howard vs. Jake Ellenberger, and Joe Stevenson vs. Takanori Gomi
For the latest UFC on Versus 2 news and UFC on Versus 2 results stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Jon Jones
Loading ...
I’m a bit surprised by this move, if it turns out to be solid.
A friend of mine lives out in SLC, and the small but thriving MMA and submission grappling community out there have been out trying to drum up as much local support for this thing as possible.
Very curious as to the reasoning behind this…
I guess mormons don’t like mma?
Yeah possibly too violent for them. Remember their prohibited from watching rated r movies. Anyways F yeah! That right next to my neck of the woods. Brent you doing anything August 1st?
I don’t know if it’s that as much as the event is taking place on a Sunday. I believe it was mentioned before that this was a cause for concern and it appears fact now.
I have been to SLC several times, and the deal is while the Mormon establishment hasn’t exactly prohibited MMA, they haven’t embraced it either.
And without the LDS church’s nod, any activity or pasttime will only gain so much support in Utah…
Talking about Sunday i recall 1 thing. They are suppose to pass time with family only, that means they can’t work or hangout with frnds kinda thing. So I guess that’s why it is moved. Let’s see what ufc gotta say.
@TC
I doubt that the UFC will say anything against the Morman religon or Church, it simply isn’t a good PR move for the Company to do that, most likely they will play it off as a Venue issue or Insurance issue there are a bunch of reasons that the UFC can throw out, religon won’t be one of them…
driving on the 5 through La Jolla (Greater San Diego headed south) look to you left there is a huge Morman church over looking the Interstate with a bugler pointed in the direction of Salt Lake City
Hmmm, I dunno about the mormons not liking MMA… Speaking as a mormon, and we have a local show called The Ultimate Combat Experience, and alot their fighters are return missionaries, previously bishops, elder quorum leaders. LDS (mormons) love a good competition. Especially the male. Have you ever played a game of Church basketball???? Most street ballers don’t usually come back… cause it’s aggressive. But Yeah, it taking place on a sunday may have put a damper on it, but there are enough drunken MMA fans out here to make up for the lack of not watching LDS ppl
@ Scrappy – I believe your right about mormons and competition. A lot of the best wrestlers at my high school were actually mormon and as with any wrestler the only way to make a living doing it (without heading to the wwe) is to become an mma fighter. Easy transition too (well maybe not easy because being a fight is never easy, but you get the point).
I am LDS (Mormon) and I have tickets to this fight bought already. I feel as though this is the second time UFC has screwed me over. The first was when I paid to see the fight in Abu Dhabi when Anderson Silva ran around the mat for 3 min.
The decision to have the fight on Sunday was a bad call. I think they should have done it on a Saturday. It would have done a lot better if they had.
As for your comments on this being too violent for us jcohl, you should try reading the Book of Mormon. A man’s head is cut off in the first 25 pages. As for the Mormon church embracing MMA, I seriously doubt any church would endorse this sport just because it is a tad violent. The church has never given it’s nod to any sport but most Mormons play one type of sport or another. FYI Joseph Smith (Prophet of the LDS faith) was a renowned wrestler.
TC-Sundays are a day of rest for Mormons. Meaning you try to think about Jesus and go to church. That’s it. Some people take this to mean you shouldn’t do anything else on Sunday but that is their opinion, not doctorine of the church itself.
Maybe you misread my comments, but I never posted anything about MMA being “too violent” for anyone, let alone those of the Mormon faith.
What I did post was that without the Church’s expressed support, any pasttime will only gain so much traction, particularly on a Sunday, which is a POV I stand by.
Apologies for not mentioning the Sunday bit in my earlier posts.
I’ve been to SLC several times, and I have a good friend who lives there.
He played football at BYU, and settled in SLC after his college days.
And while the LDS church might not actively give the nod to any sport, I’m reasonably sure the Cougars receive the lion’s share of attention on Satuday afternoons ;-)
Does anyone know if the UFC is coming to Los Angeles, CA this year?? Saw the Machida vs. Rua 1 @ staples and we have been dying for another PPV here!
Well at a quick glance I would say no, the UFC will not be putting a card on in LA… Mind you this can change but it doesn’t look as though they have an event planned for Staples.. On a MMA note Strikeforce is holding a event on Wed in LA, but hey that’s not the UFC just MMA ;)…
First off , lets set the records straight the UFC never gave Salt Lake City a chance . I live here in Salt Lake City, never saw an advertisement for this event. I found out by surfing the net, and the tickets were only available to the public for two weeks . UFC, What a joke total let down. I’ll tell you this much I’ve been a fan for life never missed a UFC event. MMA is huge here in UTAH, there is a local promoter who puts on an event every month, sells out all the time and is on two different TV networks which air’s on Sunday’s. I rented every UFC PPV event, been let down several times, but never turned my back on the UFC. Now my friends and I have to waist our time trying to refund our tickets; big mistake Dana, your losing good reliable MMA fans here in Salt Lake City. One more thing anyone who wants to watch some great fights just order SHOWTIME and watch STRIKEFORCE for free, they never let me down…
I think it’s time for SF to come in to the picture in SLC. They should capitalize it with their newbie show.
Um, what?
If Dana Fu<king White says he can't sell enough tickets to the greatest show on Earth, the UFC, in SLC, then how do you expect Scott Coker to sell tickets for Strikeforce?
How many times do you think Coker can go to the Fedor well before it comes up dry?
I'll admit that Dana running a show on Sunday in SLC wasn't bright, but seriously, if the UFC isn't drawing money in a town, no one else is going to do any better.
Especially when they have so much less to work with.
To quote dbiz, "think boy, think!"…
Was planning on a trip to Utah for this fight coming from Los Angeles. San diego is a quick 2 1/2 hour drive.. But now going to WEC 50 in Vegas the same month instead.. Same pricing for the floor seats and in my opinion WEC 50 has a better card (whats posted) than UFC Versus 2.