UFC middleweights Nate “The Great” Marquardt (30-10-2) and Yoshihiro “Sexyama” Akiyama (13-3) have been matched up to meet one another at the upcoming UFC 128 event in New Jersey.
ESPN.com was the first to report the bout, who learned of the fight from multiple sources, noting that boht men have verbally agreed to the March fight.
On Monday it was announced that Akiyama would meet Chael Sonnen at the event, but Sonnen was suspended by the UFC after he pleaded guilty in Federal court to money laundering, and now it appears the Japanese fighter will meet Marquardt instead.
Marquardt is coming off a #1 contender loss to Yushin Okami in November in their UFC 122 headlining bout in Germany. Okami would earn a unanimous decision in the fight, ending Marquardt’s bid for a shot at the UFC for a second time in just three fights. The other #1 contender loss came at the hands of Sonnen who defeated “The Great” back in February at UFC 109 by unanimous decision. In between those fights, Marquardt did earn a win as he stopped Rousimar Palhares at UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares in September by TKO.
Akiyama is the loser of two straight and is 1-2 under the UFC umbrella, his only saving grace likely, is the fact that he’s earned the “Fight of the Night” bonus in each of those fights. He last appeared in the octagon in October, dropping a unanimous decision to Michael Bisping at UFC 120 in England. He was submitted by “The Crippler” Chris Leben at UFC 116 in a bout that was up for Fight of the Year in 2010. Akiyama made his promotional debut at UFC 100 where he earned a split decision victory over Alan Belcher.
UFC 128: Shogun vs. Evans is set to take place on March 19 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The fight will certainly end up on the pay per view portion of the event, but it’s not certain whether it will end up as the co-headliner as a match between Urijah Faber vs. Eddie Wineland could take that position.