The Ultimate Fighting Championship travels to the former Mecca of MMA at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan with a highly-anticipated UFC 144 fight card.
The Saitama Super Arena has hosted some of the greatest fights in MMA history under the Pride Fighting Championships banner.
Now, the arena will host the UFC lightweight championship bout between Frankie Edgar (154) and Benson Henderson (154).
Despite having scored monumental victories over BJ Penn, Gray Maynard and Sean Sherk, Edgar tends to play the role of perennial underdog, which is a role that he generally excels at. Hollywood couldn’t have scripted a more dramatic performance than his past couple of bouts against Maynard.
Edgar was able to survive an early onslaught in both bouts and turn the tide on his opponent. While their January 2011 meeting ended in a draw, Edgar solidified his position atop the lightweight division by stopping Maynard in the fourth round via strikes in October 2011.
Edgar now meets Henderson, a former WEC champion. As champion, the level of difficulty continues to rise with every challenger, but Edgar feels that he is more than ready to impose his will and put forth his third successful UFC title defense.
“Ben’s a tough dude. It was a good camp to prepare for him. New face, new name, let’s do it!” said Edgar at the official UFC 144 weigh-ins on Friday.
After losing his WEC lightweight title to Anthony Pettis in December 2010, Henderson has taken his entire fight game to another level. Since joining the lightweight ranks in the UFC, “Bendo” has secured three lopsided unanimous decision wins over Jim Miller, Clay Guida and Mark Bocek.
“It’s a huge opportunity. I’m excited to fight Frankie. He has a great chin and a great heart. It’s gonna be a huge challenge for me to take the belt from a champion like that,” said Henderson.
The co-main event features a light heavyweight tilt between former UFC champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (211) and “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 8 winner Ryan Bader (205).
This bout represents somewhat of a homecoming for Rampage, who spent the early portion of his career power-bombing foes and wooing the Japanese fans under the Pride banner. Coming off a submission loss to Jon Jones, Rampage hopes an impressive win will help him climb back into title contention.
Meanwhile, Bader hopes to reemerge as a top-10 light heavyweight. After losing back to back bouts to Jones and Tito Ortiz, “Darth” fell out of the light heavyweight rankings and onto the UFC chopping block. He dug himself out of the 0-2 hole at UFC 139, where he scored a first round knockout over Jason Brilz.
UFC 144 will air live on pay-per-view on Saturday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. The main card is expected to feature seven bouts. Before the show goes live, fans can watch one preliminary bout between Zhang Tiequan and Issei Tamura on the UFC’s Facebook page at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT.
The other four prelims will air live on FX at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
Facebook Preliminary Bout
Zhang Tiequan (146) vs. Issei Tamura (145)
FX Preliminary Bouts
Takeya Mizugaki (135) vs. Chris Cariaso (136)
Riki Fukuda (185) vs. Steve Cantwell (185)
Norifumi Yamamoto (136) vs. Vaughan Lee (135)
Takanori Gomi (155) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (154)
Main Card
Anthony Pettis (155) vs. Joe Lauzon (156)
Hatsu Hioki (145) vs. Bart Palaszewski (146)
Yushin Okami (185) vs. Tim Boetsch (186)
Jake Shields (170) vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama (169)
Cheick Kongo (229) vs. Mark Hunt (264)
*Quinton Jackson (211) vs. Ryan Bader (205)
Frankie Edgar (154) vs. Benson Henderson (154)
*Quinton Jackson failed to make weight and will offer up 20-percent of his purse to Ryan Bader for taking the fight.
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