Yushin Okami – Photo via UFC.com
The DenverPost.com broke the news Friday that the Ultimate Fighting Championship would be returning to The Mile-High City for UFC 150 at the Pepsi Center on August 15, 2012.
The Post also confirmed the first two bouts for the card identifying a middleweight bout between Yushin ‘Thunder’ Okami (26-7) and Luiz Cané (12-4, 1NC), as well as lightweight scrap featuring Dennis ‘Superman’ Hallman (51-14-2, 1NC) vs. Thiago Tavares (17-4-1).
The last visit by the UFC took place in September of last year with UFC 135, an event which saw UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones defend his title against former champ Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson.
Okami has dropped two straight, which includes a loss to UFC champ Anderson Silva last August at UFC 134 in Brazil. ‘Thunder’ suffered his most recent defeat at the hands of Tim Boetsch at UFC 144. After dominating the first two rounds, Okami looked like he’d cruise to an easy decision win but ‘The Barbarian’ came out firing and dropped Okami in the first minute for the TKO finish.
Cané is 1-3 in his last four, losing via first round TKO to Stanislav Nedkov at UFC 134 last summer in his native Brazil. Previous to that, Cané stopped Eliot Marshall at UFC 128 via TKO, and was finished by the same result at the hands of Cyrille Diabate at UFC 114 and by Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 106.
Hallman, who looks to return to the lightweight division, is 1-1 in his last two and 3-1 in his last four Octagon appearances. He submitted John Makdessi last December at UFC 140 in a 158.5-lbs bout after failing to make weight versus the Canadian. Hallman’s previous match was at welterweight versus Brian Ebersole, which ended in a TKO loss for ‘Superman’ on the UFC 133 card.
Tavares has won two straight and is 4-1-1 in his last six bouts. The Octagon veteran will look to put together three victories versus Hallman after wins over Sam Stout (decision) at UFC 142, and Spencer Fisher (TKO) at UFC 134. Tavares suffered his last loss in March 2011, losing by knockout to Shane Roller at UFC on Versus 3.