The UFC won't be putting on mega-events at a stadium every quarter. It has to be perfect match. That's why we were a little surprised to see the future Houston event in October mentioned as a candidate for a stadium show.
Sources tell Brawl Sports that if Brock Lesnar wins his bout against Junior dos Santos at UFC 131 next month, the company will give serious consideration to running the UFC event at Reliant Stadium and not the previously-reported Toyota Center. If dos Santos wins, they'll almost certainly run Toyota Center. The winner of that UFC 131 bout will face Cain Velasquez in a bout that will almost certainly take place in Houston.
Jeremy Botter throws a little cold water on the idea by mentioning two important notes:
1. Filling a stadium the size of Reliant won't be easy. While Lesnar has historically been the best pay per view draw on the planet, he's not a very good live draw. They'll need more than just a heavyweight title fight to fill that card.
2. There's just one small problem: the Texans have a game scheduled against Oakland the next day. While I've seen the UFC brass tear down an arena in just a matter of hours, I can't imagine they'd be able to get an entire stadium ready for a football game the next day at noon. It simply isn't possible, not with the amount of bleachers and video screens they would be bringing into the stadium for a custom setup.
Botter thinks an NFL lockout is all but a certainty and says the Oct. 8 date at Reliant Stadium could open up. I'd be shocked if the NFL lockout reaches October, but you never know. I'd also be a little surprised if Lesnar beats dos Santos. He's got a lot of ground to make up in the stand-up game. If Lesnar didn't like getting hit by Cain Velasquez, imagine his reaction to the power and speed of JDS.
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