Reminder: Tickets for UFC on FX: Johnson vs. McCall On Sale This Week

Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall (Josh Hedges/UFC)

UFC Fight Club members can buy tickets Wednesday, general public Friday

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns in June to Florida for the first time in more than three years, and tickets for the event go on sale this week.

UFC Fight Club members can purchase tickets Wednesday at 10 a.m. Eastern for UFC on FX: Johnson vs. McCall, which is scheduled for June 8 at the BankAtlantic Center in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Sunrise, Fla. Additionally, UFC newsletter subscribers can purchase tickets Thursday at 10 a.m. with their password in a pre-sale. Tickets to the general public go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

The location for UFC on FX 3 was chosen after fan voting in the Harley-Davidson Hometown Throwdown contest. The UFC announced the host city and venue last week. The buildup to the Harley-sponsored event continues in the Hometown Throwdown promotion, with fans currently able to vote for the fight they want to see open the broadcast on the FX cable network.

UFC on FX 3 will feature a main event flyweight semifinal rematch between Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall. The two 125-pounders will meet again to finally get some closure on their first fight, which took last month in Sydney, Australia, at UFC on FX: Alves vs. Kampmann. The two met in the semifinals of the UFC’s four-man tournament to determine its first flyweight champion.

After a close fight, Johnson was announced as the split decision winner. But at the post-fight news conference, UFC president Dana White revealed that a mistake was made in the score tallying by the commissioner in Sydney and the fight was actually a draw. The UFC had created a provision for such an occurrence, and a fourth sudden-victory round was supposed to take place. But it didn’t happen when Johnson was declared the winner. Now the two will face each other one more time to determine who will face Joseph Benavidez for the UFC’s first flyweight title, a bout that now likely will happen in late 2012 instead of this summer. Benavidez beat Yasuhiro Urushitani in Sydney right after the Johnson-McCall fight, but now must wait to learn whom his opponent will be.

In addition to the Johnson-McCall fight on the FX broadcast, which will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern on June 8, fan voting at ufc.com/hometownthrowdown for a main-card fight is between a bantamweight bout featuring Eddie Wineland and Scott Jorgensen, welterweights Mike Pierce and Carlos Eduardo Rocha and welterweights Seth Baczynski and Lance Benoist. As of Wednesday morning, the Wineland-Jorgensen bout was leading the voting with 40 percent of the tally.

Two other fights are locked in for the main card on FX. Surging welterweight Josh Neer will face Mike Pyle, and Charlie Brenneman takes on Erick Silva, also in a 170-pound bout. The winner of the fan voting gets to open the FX telecast. The other two fights will become a part of the preliminary card.

The last UFC event in Florida was in February 2009, a Fight Night headlined by Joe Lauzon and Jeremy Stephens in Tampa. Prior to that, the UFC was in Hollywood, Fla., for a Fight Night card on June 12, 2007 headlined by Sam Stout and Spencer Fisher, who coincidentally will fight for the third time just two weeks later at UFC on FX 4 in Atlantic City, N.J.

“I’m excited to bring the UFC back to Florida,” UFC president Dana White said in a statement. “The first fight between Johnson and McCall was incredible, and on June 8, they will finally finish the fight to determine who is going to fight for the first flyweight title.”