...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC 116 card for Las Vegas continues to fill out with three more fights possibly headed to the card. The rumored bouts feature to heavyweight contests and a middleweight bout between Nate Marquart and Alessio Sakara.
The heavyweight bouts would pit Roy Nelson against Cheick Kongo and Brendan Schaub against Chris Tuchscherer.
The Marquardt-Sakara and Schaub-Tuchscherer matchups came to light from SportsNet's Joe Ferraro, who posted on his Twitter page "Sources telling me that UFC 116 will likely see Nate Marquardt take on Alessio Sakara, while Brendan Schaub may be facing Chris Tuchscherer."
The Nelson fight is a possibility for Kongo, who Fighter's Only reports will compete on the card.
The Ultimate Fighter season ten winner Nelson is coming off his second straight KO victory in the Octagon, as he toppled 6'11" Stefan Struve just 39 seconds into their bout at UFC Fight Night 21. Kongo picked up a victory last month as well, rebounding from the first back to back losses of his career to pummel Paul Buentello into submission at UFC on Versus.
Nate Marquardt will look to climb back up the ladder in the middleweight division after his Title hopes were derailed by Chael Sonnen in February. Sakara has won three straight fights for the first time in his UFC career, coming off a first round TKO victory over James Irvin at the UFC on Versus event.
Schaub and Tuchscherer are both coming off their first wins in the UFC, with Schaub blasting Chase Gormley in the first round at the UFC on Versus event and Tuchscherer earning a majority decision over Tim Hague at UFC 109 in February.
Penick's Analysis: These are all highly interesting fights for this card that will be one of the UFC's biggest drawing cards ever. The Nelson-Kongo bout wouldn't have been my first choice for Nelson, as I would have liked to see the talked about fight with Junior Dos Santos, but Kongo's a good step up in competition here. Kongo is definitely a gatekeeper, and it's a great visual matchup with Kongo's straight up chiseled physique against Nelson's big gut.
The Marquardt fight against Sakara is a big step up for Alessio while he is a good rebound fight for Marquardt. After the loss to Sonnen, Marquardt needs a big win, and with Sakara winning three straight he's the right type of opponent for "Nate the Great" right now.
The Schaub-Tuchscherer fight is another solid under card matchup. Tuchscherer's going to be outclassed in the striking department by Schaub, but his wrestling should be superior. It will be an interesting heavyweight battle with those dynamics in play.
RELATED STORY: UFC NEWS: Kurt Pellegrino vs. George Sotiropolous coming to UFC 116 in Las Vegas: [CLICK TO READ FULL STORY]
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
