By Joe Ferraro
While Nate Marquardt (29-8-2) was awaiting a pending bout with Dan Henderson for UFC 108, it appears he has decided to move on and face Chael Sonnen (24-10-1) instead.
Sources have informed me that the two are awaiting bout agreements and will be added to an already stellar card that the UFC is building for their debut in Sydney, Australia.
Marquardt is coming off a stunning KO victory at UFC 102 versus Demian Maia, a bout he ended with a devastating right cross, that looked like video game, highlight reel finish just twenty one seconds into the first round.
For Sonnen, the UFC rewarded him with this contender bout after he dismantled and completely controlled Yushin Okami at UFC 104, earning a unanimous judges decision. Okami had always been considered a highly touted contender and was mentioned many times as a potential challenger to current champion, Anderson “The Spider” Silva. After a variety of injuries and a disappointed performance vs Sonnen, the latter was bumped up the middleweight food chain and is inching ever so close to a crack at the champ.
The hype for UFC 110 is already building with scheduled and rumoured bouts including a middleweight fight between Wanderlei “The Axe Murder” Silva (32-10-1) vs Yoshiro Akiyama (13-1), a heavyweight tilt between Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic (25-7-2) and “Big” Ben Rothwell (30-7), a light heavyweight match up between Canadian Krzysztof Soszynski (18-9-1) and Stephan Bonnar (11-6) as well as the octagon debut of Australia’s own light heavyweight, James Te Huna (12-4).
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Regards,
Joe Ferraro
MMA Analyst
Host of “MMA Connected”
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