Two high-profile fights added to UFC 119
Two more fights have been reportedly added to mixed martial arts promoter the Ultimate Fighting Championships’ UFC 119 card, set to take place in Indianapolis on September 25.
Rising lightweight star Evan Dunham will be taking on former champion Sean Sherk in a battle which will provide another contender to the 155-pound lightweight title.
In light-heavyweight action, 205-pounders Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ryan Bader are set to square off, it was reported by MMAWeekly.com.
Evan Dunham looks to gain high-profile win
Dunham is arguably the lightweight division’s most promising up-and-comer right now, having won two consecutive upset victories. He came in against Efrain Escudero, the winner of the eighth season of the UFC’s reality show The Ultimate Fighter, as a two to one underdog. After being battered throughout the first round, he came back in the second and controlled the fight before securing a brutal arm bar that Escudero refused to tap to, finally injuring his arm before submitting.
His next fight was against Tyson Griffin, where, once again as an underdog, he used his jiu-jitsu brown belt to control the one-time contender. He took his back multiple times and nearly secured several submissions but had to settle with an unanimous 30-27 decision.
Sherk seeks comeback
Sean Sherk is one of the longest veterans of the UFC”s lightweight division. After the division was put on hiatus for several years, Sherk was the first new lightweight champion since Jens Pulver, winning the belt at UFC 64 in a bloody match. He was stripped of the title after testing positive for steroids after his first defence, and then challenged for the belt against B.J Penn but was defeated. Since that fight, over two years ago, Sherk has only fought twice, once beating Griffin and once losing to current champion Frankie Edgar.
There’ll be two main questions going into this fight for Sherk. One will be whether he can stay healthy, as he’s seen his return to the octagon derailed many times by injuries. The other will be whether he’ll decide to stick with his base and wrestle. When he wrestles, he’s a formidable opponent, but in his last fight against Edgar he seemed to want to box instead, despite having the shortest reach in the UFC, and was picked apart throughout the fight.
Bader wants to make himself a star
Bader, The Ultimate Fighter season nine winner, will be getting an opportunity to create a much bigger name for himself with a victory over Nogueira. The Nogueira brothers are synonymous with MMA, with Rogerio Nogueira having long been a legend in Japan’s Pride Fighting Championships and recently the UFC.
Bader will bring his heavy-handed striking and solid wrestling to the fight against Nogueira. He last fought against 205-pound veteran Keith Jardine. Bader knocked him out with a combination of a flying knee and a stiff uppercut to put Jardine to the canvas.
Nogueira seeks redemption
After it was first rumoured he’d be facing Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, it seems the 33-year-old Nogueira will have to put himself against a younger, hungrier fighter.
Long known for his crisp, technical boxing and excellent Brazilian jiu-jitsu, he made his UFC début against Luiz Cane at UFC 105 and put on a boxing clinic, knocking his fellow Brazilian out in two minutes. He was then derailed somewhat after he was given a much weaker opponent, Jason Brilz in his next match at UFC 114. Brilz stunned the world by nearly beating Nogueira who won only by a split-decision in a fight many believed he should have lost. A victory here will clear away memories of that bout.
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