Dallas May be the venue for Silva vs Sonnen 2

From MMA junkie
by Dan Stupp and John Morgan

HOUSTON – After hosting a another successful show in the Lone Star State, the UFC could return to Texas with an even bigger event.

It fact, the state could host the UFC's next major stadium show.

And following his impressive victory over Brian Stann at Saturday's UFC 136 event at Houston's Toyota Center, Chael Sonnen could get his long-awaited rematch in the show's headliner.

White said he currently has no plans for a next stadium show; the first, of course, took back in April when a UFC and North American record 55,724 attendees packed Toronto's Rogers Centre. But should a second one be put together, Dallas' 110,000-seat Cowboys Stadium could be the venue.

"We've been talking to (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones for a while about doing a fight there," White said. "It's just got to be the right fight. We're definitely going there. It's just a matter of when."

So how does he know when the timing is right? After all, White, who made a triumphant return to Brazil back in August, greatly underestimated the demand in the country and saw 14,000 seats sell out in just 74 minutes. Next year, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said the Convention Center of Manaus (one of many "sambadromes" located throughout Brazil) – an outdoor venue that can hold up to 100,000 fans – could be the next host site.

"It's a gut (thing)," White said. "We kind of go with our gut, and we've been right. We knew Toronto was going to be big, so we went for the big stadium there. We [expletive] Brazil up last time we went there. We didn't nail that one, but we won't make that mistake twice."

As for Dallas, White said it's only a matter of time.

"It's like all these prestigious arenas you go to around the world," he said. "We've been to Royal Albert Hall. We've been to the O2 Arena in London. You name the arena, we've been there. It's a big deal for us to go to Dallas [Cowboys] Stadium and put on a big event there. ... We want to do that big stadium (show)."

Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields headlined the first stadium show at UFC 129. So what could headline the Dallas show?

Following his victory over Stann, Sonnen – who returned from a 14-month layoff – solidified his No. 1 contender's status and immediately called out UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. The fighters first met at UFC 117, where Sonnen dominated four rounds before Silva secured a fifth-round submission victory.

Since then, the outspoken Sonnen has claimed to be the UFC's true champ, and Saturday's post-fight speech was used solely to call out Silva.

Could Dallas host the rematch?

"I think it could," White said. "I think we could do a big, big venue for that one."