UFC is Coming to The Rio Grande Valley

During UFC Fight Night 91 it was announced that the UFC will be returning to the Lone Star state in the middle of September. They won’t be hitting up the bigger metropolitan areas like Dallas, Houston or San Antonio but they will make there way down to the lost region of Texas- The Rio Grande Valley. While the show will be officially titled UFC Fight Night Hidalgo, the raza really knows they are coming to the valley.

A lot people were confused and surprised that UFC will be coming to an area that the majority of people don’t even know exist. Well, for those people, they probably don’t know that the Rio Grande Valley is one of the top 10 markets for boxing and MMA. They probably also don’t know that the 956 area is one of the most lucrative hotbeds for WWE house shows(don’t tell me there isn’t crossover between the two brands). They probably also don’t know that our area has produced some UFC fighters of our own and that one of Texas’ premier regional promotions, STFC,  exist in the valley.  And judging from the lineup, I don’t even think UFC knows that there are fighters from the valley on their roster(or have been on Ultimate Fighter) that could be placed on the undercard of this show. The UFC is lining up the card with guys from Mexico and I get it- it’s Mexico’s Independence weekend – but it would be more exciting for fight fans to see their hometown fighters get a shot on MMA’s biggest stage. Although he is fighting this weekend, it would be incredible to see Goyito Perez fight on a televised event in front of the fans that supported him from the start. Carlos Deigo Ferreira would be an obvious choice as well but he is currently serving a one year suspension. The most feasible choice would be Hector Urbina, the older brother of Gilbert and Elias. Hector is currently left without of a fight since his opponent was recently pulled from their July 23 bout after a potential USADA violation. In an ideal world, I would hope UFC would look to STFC and identify fighters from their stable that could potentially be on the UFC roster.

Anyway, here is the card for UFC Fight Night 94:

• Dustin Poirier vs Michael Johnson
• Uriah Hall vs Derek Brunson
• Evan Dunham vs Abel Trujillo
• Sam Sicillia vs Gabriel Benitez
• Manny Gamburyan vs Alejandro Perez
• Joey Gomez vs Jose Alberto Quinones
• Chas Skelly vs Maximo Blanco
• Roan Carneiro vs Kenny Robertson
• Antonio Carlos Junior vs Leonardo Guimaraes
• Augusto Montano vs Belal Muhammad
• Chris Wade vs Islam Makachev
• Randy Brown vs Erick Montano