Couture vs Nogueira on Aug 29 at UFC 102

The UFC has officially announced it’s main card for the August UFC 102 card in Portland, Oregon and the main event will indeed feature the ‘losers’ bracket of the mini heavyweight tournament with former three time UFC Heavyweight champion Randy Couture set to face former PRIDE Heavyweight champion and former UFC interim Heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The fight is one for MMA’s long time fans as both Nogueira and Couture held the PRIDE and UFC titles at the same time back in 2001/2002 before Couture was beaten by Barnett and Nogueira lost his title to Fedor. The fight could give us the next challenger for the division, but then again with contenders like Velasquez and Carwin emerging it may not. Also, with the chances of Lesnar beating Mir we could get the rubber match before we see anyone else challenge for the title.

The co main event is a shocker to me. I thought with the lack of names at 185lbs that the Demian Maia vs Nate Marquadt fight was a certain for co-main event but it was beaten out by Thiago Silva vs Keith Jardine. Really, what does that fight do for the 205lb division? Maia vs Marquadt gives us the next top contender in the division and if Maia wins it as easy as he’s won some of his other fights then all of a sudden there’s a serious threat to Anderson Silva but not a marketable one. If Maia is featured on a countdown show in length, then if he gets the chance to fight for the title his fight is that much easier to market. Regurgitating Keith Jardine and Thiago Silva when they should take their rightful place lower on the card makes little sense.

The Full main card:

Randy Couture vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Keith Jardine vs Thiago Silva
Demian Maia vs Nate Marquadt
Matt Hamill vs Brandon Vera
Chris Leben vs Jake Rosholt

Amir Sadollah back at UFC 101

Yeah I know, I normally only write big news, but I’m trying to expand the site so I’m going to try and make daily contributions with whatever is happening in MMA, Boxing or K-1.
TUF 7 champion Amir Sadollah makes it take three at UFC 101 after pulling out of UFC 91 and then UFC Fight Night: Lauzon vs Stephens both with injuries. His opponent with be undefeated WEC veteran Johnny Hendricks and the fight could likely end up on the televised portion of UFC 101 which features a main event of BJ Penn vs Kenny Florian for the UFC lightweight title. Hendricks has solid wrestling credentials as he was a runner-up at the 2007 NCAA division one National Championships (to put that in perspective, guys like Brock Lesnar and Mark Coleman were NCAA National Champions so this guy can obviously wrestle). This fight could be real interesting as Sadollah has very dangerous submissions and striking but his wrestling isn’t all there and with his year long lay off, Hendricks might be able to push the pace on him a bit more then he’ll like.
Another fight added to UFC 101 is Tamdan McCrory vs John Howard. McCrory is coming of a win over Ryan Madigan at UFC 96 where he was up against a complete novice in terms of ground fighting. John Howard should provide a sterner test. The vive year veteran brings a 11-4 record with a 1-0 record in the UFC having edged out Chris Wilson in January by split decision. The two will likely fight on the untelevised portion of the card. Also, Chris Leben is rumoured to be on the Couture-Nogueira undercard at UFC 102 against Jake Rosholt. Leben was serving a suspension for a failed drug test after his loss to Michael Bisping at the UFC 89 main event. Rosholt seems to be a bit of a soft touch for Leben as he has only six pro fights, losing his only UFC fight to Dan Miller in 67 seconds by submission.