UFC to bring golden age PPV to a Brazil in crisis

On Saturday night, the UFC will host arguably the most impressive line-up to date on a Brazil-based PPV. Unfortunately, they will do so amidst a national crisis – one rooted in deep-set political corruption, and potential presidential impeachment.

Despite a weak economy, the infamous Petrobras scandal and rapidly rising tensions ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the UFC reportedly sold 45,000 tickets in nine hours for the Curitiba show. The UFC general manager in Brazil, Giovani Decker, even proclaimed it to be “one of the biggest events this year in Brazil, only a bit behind the Olympics.” Much of the success is due to the slew of iconic names featured on the card, including Anderson Silva (now no longer on the card), Mauricio Rua, and Cris Cyborg.

The Petrobras scandal, which was uncovered back in 2013, highlighted the extent of corruption in Brazil. The state-controlled multinational corporation in the petroleum industry created a cartel and purposely inflated the worth of Petrobras contracts, which allowed them to charge exorbitant prices. Employees turned a blind eye while this occurred, while executives enjoyed the profits reaped from the scheme—over $5 billion. They bribed politicians to allow the perpetual cycle of corruption and negligence to continue indefinitely.

While the scandal was uncovered several years ago, it wasn’t until the Supreme Court announced an investigation of dozens of politicians involved in 2015 that the Brazilian people decided to riot against the ruling class. Millions of angry Brazilians flooded the streets to protest the ongoing corruption and the weak government that refused to put an end to it. The widespread corruption that they protested dates back many years and has impacted generations of Brazilians and added to the already prevalent class divide. With income inequality at an all-time high and poverty an inevitable truth that many had to wrestle with, the Petrobras scandal was seem as the culmination of a lifetime of fraudulence.

There was still more to come.

Since then, the international bribery investigation led to over 160 arrests from more than a dozen companies. Operation Carwash, a money laundering investigation that has already toppled key members of suspended President Dilma Rousseff’s inner circle, including members of her Workers’ Party. The U.S. Justice Department expanded the operation to cover allegations of corruption in the Petrobras scandal.

Rousseff, who was chairwoman of Petrobras for a portion of the scandalous period, has since been suspended from office and placed on trial for impeachment. Her suspension is technically unrelated to the scandal, and instead focused on financial discrepancy during her 2014 presidential campaign. Senators voted to suspended her by 55 votes to 22 following a 20-hour session that …

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