The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced the matches for the upcoming UFC Fan Expo grappling tournament presented by Grapplers Quest and to be held at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on April 29 and 30.
UFC welterweight standout Diego “The Dream” Sanchez will face off with number-one ranked Canadian grappler Andrew McInnes in the opening round, while world-renowned jiu-jitsu specialist Ryan Hall, who defeated Hermes Franca at the UFC Fan Expo in Boston last August, will take on BJJ black belt Jorge Britto. Britto has trained under such greats as Helio Gracie, Royler Gracie, Saulo Ribeiro and Xande Ribeiro.
Opening round bouts (semifinals) will take place Friday, April 29, at 1:30 p.m. ET. Opening round winners will meet in the finals on Saturday, April 30 at 1:30 p.m. ET.
In addition, there will be a grappling “Super Fight” with Fabio Holanda, head instructor of Brazilian Top Team in Montreal, taking on seven-time Grappler’s Quest champion Dolan Nutch. The “Super Fight” will take place Saturday, April 30 at 1:30 p.m. ET.
UFC President Dana White commented on the tournament:
“The UFC Fan Expo will feature some great matches between some of the best grapplers in the world. I’m really excited to see Diego Sanchez compete and try to win the tournament. He’s always really tough on the ground and he has a ton of heart.”
The UFC Fan Expo is being held in conjunction with the sold out UFC 129: St-PIierre vs. Shields Pay-Per-View event, which will take place in front of 55,000 fans at Rogers Centre on Saturday, April 30. Learn more about the UFC Fan Expo at www.UFCFanExpo.com.
Very cool. I was making a post on this the other day about hoping they would bring this back to the fan expo (although mine was throwing out names line Nick Diaz, BJ Penn, and Marcelo Garcia..). Hopefully they put it on facebook or UFC.com.