UFC 180 in Mexico City needs just eight hours to sell all 21,000 tickets
When Dana White bought the UFC in 2001, he said there were three countries that were "no brainers" where mixed martial arts would be huge: The U.S., England and Mexico.
It took a long time, but the UFC is finally putting an event in Mexico, and the response has been overwhelming.
All 21,000 tickets for UFC 180, which will be held Nov. 15 at the Mexico City Arena, sold out in just eight hours, White told Yahoo Sports on Thursday. The main event of the show will be a heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdrum, who are coaching against each other on the first season of "The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America."
The first episode attracted seven milliion viewers on Televisa, Mexico's largest network, White said.
"I've been saying it for years that Mexico was going to be huge, and you're seeing that now," White said. "That's a massive number to pull [for the first episode] and this thing is going to be massive down there."
White said the UFC 'is heavily invested in Mexico," and will stage multiple shows there a year.
The UFC announced the main card for the show on Wednesday. In addition to Velasquez-Werdum, it includes Kelvin Gastelum against Jake Ellenberger; Diego Sanchez against Norman Parke; Ricardo Lamas versus Dennis Bermudez and Erik Perez, a Mexican, against Marcus Brimage.
