User:Gamezero05/Gamezero05 Sandbox/UFC 148

UFC 148
UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II is an upcoming mixed martial arts events to be helt by the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It will be the 17th UFC event of the year, and is expected to take place on July 7, 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Background

The UFC Middleweight Championship between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen was originally intended to take place at UFC 147 at Havelange Stadium in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Due to a scheduling conflict with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the bout was subsequently moved to headline UFC 148 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The main event will feature the UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva defending his championship against UFC middleweight challenger Chael Sonnen. Sonnen is currently ranked as the number two middleweight in the world by Sherdog., while Silva is the consensus number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world according to Sherdog, Yahoo! Sports, and ESPN. This will be the second fight between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen, with the previous match taking place in 2010 at UFC 117, also for the UFC Middleweight Championship. The champion, Anderson Silva, lost four straight rounds against Sonnen at UFC 117 before submitting his foe by triangle choke with 1:50 left in the 5th and final round. With the win, Silva retained the UFC Middleweight Championship, his undefeated record in the UFC, and his 13 fight win streak, in which proved to be his toughest fight in the UFC. The fight went on to receive the fight of the year award at the 2010 World MMA Awards.

Since UFC 117, Silva has gone on to defend his belt twice more, with KO and TKO wins over Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami, respectively. Sonnen has also gone undefeated since UFC 117, defeating Brian Stann and Michael Bisping, setting the stage for one of the most demanded rematches, and one of the most anticipated fights in UFC history.

In the co-main event at UFC 148, Urijah Faber was expected to fight for the UFC Bantamweight Championship against champion Dominick Cruz following their stint as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Live, but a torn ACL forced Cruz off the card. This would have been the third match between the two, with both Cruz and Faber holding a win against each other. Faber defended his Featherweight Championship against Cruz at WEC 26, and Cruz defended his bantamweight championship against Faber at UFC 132.

Due to the ACL injury of Dominick Cruz, the card will now feature a co-main event between bantamweights Urijah Faber and Renan Barão for the Interim Bantamweight Championship. Barão currently has one of the longest unbeaten streaks in MMA with 29 straight fights without a loss. He was originally scheduled to fight at this event on the preliminary card against Ivan Menjivar. Menjivar's new opponent is Mike Easton.

Also on the card is a long-awaited rubber match between Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin. Each fighter has defeated the other in their two prior meetings with Ortiz winning the first bout at UFC 59 and Griffin winning the rematch at UFC 106. Both of the fights resulted in a split decision.

Rich Franklin was expected to return to middleweight with a bout against Cung Le at the event. However, due to an injury to headliner Vitor Belfort, Franklin was pulled from the bout with Le and is now scheduled to rematch Wanderlei Silva in a 190 lb catchweight bout on June 23, 2012 at UFC 147. Le is now expected to face returning veteran Patrick Côté.

Official Fight Card