UFC is Coming to the Home of the Super Bowl Champion Indy Colts
Press Release
For the first-time ever, Indianapolis will get a taste of the Ultimate Fighting Championship®. Former UFC® heavyweight champion Frank Mir and former interim UFC heavyweight champion and mixed martial arts legend Minotauro Nogueira will mix it up for an encore performance on Saturday, September 25 at UFC 119: MIR VS. NOGUEIRA 2, which is presented by “Halo Reach” and live from the Conseco Field House in Indianapolis, Indiana. Also featured on this historic card, Nogueira’s twin brother and light heavyweight force Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will take on two-time NCAA Division I All-American wrestler turned undefeated fighter Ryan Bader. Then it’s a rematch of The Ultimate Fighter®: The Comeback finale as former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra takes on one of Indianapolis’ own in Chris “Lights Out” Lytle.
“Ever since Frank Mir beat Nogueira for the heavyweight title in 2008, Minotauro has asked me for this rematch because he wants to prove that the first fight was a fluke,” said UFC President Dana White. “On September 25th, he gets his wish, and I don’t think there’s any fighter more motivated than he is to even the score. As for Frank Mir, he wants to get back in the title picture, and if I know him, he was the first man to knock Nogueira out at UFC 92, and now he’ll want to be the first man to make him tap out.”
Tickets for UFC 119: MIR vs. NOGUEIRA 2 will go on sale Saturday, July 24 at 10am ET and will be priced at $300, $200, $125, $90, $70 and $40. Fans can purchase tickets at ConsecoFieldhouse.com, the Conseco Fieldhouse Box Office or all Ticketmaster outlets.
UFC® Fight Club™ members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to this event on Thursday, July 22 at 10 a.m. ET via the website ufcfightclub.com. A special Internet ticket pre-sale will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers on Friday, July 23 at 10 a.m. ET. To access this presale, users must register for the UFC newsletter through ufc.com.
UFC 119 will be available live on Pay-Per-View at 10pm ET/7pm PT on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, DISH Network, TVN, BellTV, Shaw Communications, Sasktel, and Viewer’s Choice Canada for a suggested retail price of $44.99 US/$49.99 CAN for standard definition or high-definition broadcasts (where available).
Before his impressive knockout win over Nogueira at UFC 92 in December 2008, Frank Mir (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev. / professional record – 13-5) won two straight fights via submission over UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and Antoni Hardonk. The former UFC heavyweight champion looked to be on track for another title shot after he put Cheick Kongo to sleep at UFC 107, but the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt fell short against Shane Carwin in March. Now the 31-year-old faces a familiar foe and he is hoping that lightning strikes twice as he gets back in the title race.
After a historic run in PRIDE®, Minotauro Nogueira (fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / 32-6-1, 1 NC) entered the Octagon® for the first time in 2007 and earned two straight victories, including a submission win over Tim Sylvia that made him the first and only man to ever hold both the PRIDE and UFC world heavyweight titles. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt most recently dropped a fight to No. 1 heavyweight contender Cain Velasquez, but with a classic unanimous decision win against UFC Hall-Of-Famer Randy Couture at UFC 102, the 34-year-old can never be counted out.
For the first-time ever, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / 19-3) will fight on the same UFC card as his twin brother. Known for having heavy hands as well as a deadly ground game, the Brazilian is dangerous wherever the fight goes. It took the light heavyweight only 1:56 to TKO the battle-tested Luiz Cane in his UFC debut last November before earning a split-decision victory against Jason Brilz in May. Now Nogueira faces his toughest UFC test to date in Ryan Bader.
Undefeated light heavyweight Ryan Bader (fighting out of Tempe, Ariz. / 12-0) has rattled off four consecutive victories since joining the UFC. The former two-time NCAA Division I All-American from Arizona State is coming off a breakthrough knockout at UFC 110 against MMA veteran Keith Jardine that catapulted him into serious contention for the 205-pound strap. Now the 27-year-old will go against an extremely talented opponent that is looking to get into the championship picture himself.
A true Rocky story come to life, Long Island’s Matt Serra (fighting out of East Meadow, N.Y. / 17-6) is most famous for his underdog knockout win against UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69 to earn the 170-pound championship. Serra, the first American-born black belt under the legendary Renzo Gracie, most recently earned a first-round win over Frank Trigg at UFC 109 and now looks to climb back up the ladder with a win against hometown fighter Chris Lytle.
Winner of his last three fights, the red-hot Chris Lytle (fighting out of Indianapolis, Indiana / 39-17-4) is coming off two impressive submission victories over Brian Foster and Matt Brown. A fighter that is known for exciting fights and who has the “Fight of the Night” bonus checks to prove it, Lytle will be fighting in a UFC event in front of his home crowd for the first time. A former pro boxer turned mixed martial artist, the 35-year-old family man is a firefighter in his spare time and now looks to avenge his loss to old friend Matt Serra.
For more information, or current UFC fight news, visit UFC.com. All bouts live and subject to change.
Ultimate Fighting Championship® – www.ufc.com
Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., UFC® produces over twelve UFC live Pay-Per-View events annually and 30 live arena events around the world. UFC programming is distributed in the United States on Viacom, Inc.’s Spike TV and on Comcast, Inc.’s Versus network. UFC content is distributed commercially through Joe Hand Promotions in the U.S. and Canadastar in Canada. Globally, UFC programming is broadcast in over 147 countries and territories, reaching 430 million homes worldwide, in 19 different languages. Ancillary businesses now include UFC.com with over 5 million unique visitors per month, the best-selling UFC “Undisputed” videogame franchise distributed by THQ, UFC Gym™, UFC Fight Club affinity program, UFC Fan Expo™ festivals, branded apparel, trading cards, articulated action figures and other media including best-selling DVDs and a U.S. bimonthly magazine.
Ultimate Fighting Championship®, Ultimate Fighting®, UFC®, The Ultimate Fighter®, Submission®, As Real As It Gets®, Zuffa®, The Octagon™ and the eight-sided competition mat and cage design are registered trademarks, registered service marks, trademarks, trade dress and/or service marks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC and licensed to its affiliated entities and other licensees in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks referenced herein may be the property of Zuffa, LLC, its affiliates or other respective owners.