The Ultimate Fighting Championship has continued to expand and set ticket and gate records despite a struggling economy in much of the world.

It won’t have any such problems in Brazil, where the economy is one of the most robust in the world and grew nearly nine percent in the second quarter.

The promotion will try to take advantage of the economy and the rabid mixed martial arts following in the country when it hosts a pay-per-view card on August 27 at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro.

UFC president Dana White said on Wednesday that many of the 36 Brazilian fighters currently on the company’s roster would compete on the show. Among the Brazilians under contract to the UFC are middleweight champion Anderson Silva, featherweight champion Jose Aldo and middleweight contender Vitor Belfort.

White said the UFC’s interest in Brazil intensified after Rio de Janeiro landed the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“Because of how big this is here, people were always asking me about Brazil and when it would happen and I always said it probably won’t happen for a while because we weren’t focused on it,” White said by telephone Wednesday from Rio, where he was headed to a news conference to announce the show. “But when they got the Olympics, I said, ‘Now we’re interested,’ and we really began to look at Brazil.

“The economy is doing extremely well down here. The fact that these guys got the Olympics, the (2014) World Cup and all these big events, it just made sense. The economy has really been kick started and there are a lot of good things going on in Brazil.”

This is the UFC’s second event in Brazil. Under previous ownership, the company held a card called “UFC Brazil” on October 16, 1998 in Sao Paulo.

Kevin Iole / Yahoo