With the addition of Erick Silva vs. Takenori Sato, the UFC Fight Night 36 is complete with 12 bouts for Jaragua do Sul, Brazil.
MMAFighting.com confirmed with sources close to the situation that Sato has signed with the UFC to replace injured Nate Loughran and take on Silva on Feb. 15 in Brazil. Combate first reported the news.
Sato, the current welterweight King of Pancrase, enters the UFC with a 14-8-6 professional record. The MMA veteran has never fought outside of Japan, and is undefeated in his last six bouts with five wins and one draw. Sato hasn’t fought since a decision victory over Kiichi Kunimoto, who recently made his UFC debut, in March 2012.
Silva (15-3, 1 no-contest) returns to the Octagon following a second-round knockout loss to Dong Hyun Kim at UFN 29. Prior to that bout, Silva needed 71 seconds to finish Jason High last June. Silva entered the UFC in 2011 as a big welterweight prospect coming out of Brazil, but went 3-3 inside the Octagon.
The complete card for UFC Fight Night 36 is the following:
Lyoto Machida vs. Gegard Mousasi
Ronaldo Souza vs. Francis Carmont
Cristiano Marcello vs. Joe Proctor
Viscardi Andrade vs. Nicholas Musoke
Francisco Trinaldo vs. Jesse Ronson
Charles Oliveira vs. Andy Ogle
Thiago Tavares vs. Zubair Tuhugov
Iuri Alcantara vs. Wilson Reis
Felipe Arantes vs. Maximo Blanco
Rodrigo Damm vs. Ivan Jorge
Albert Tumenov vs. Ildemar Alcantara
Erick Silva vs. Takenori Sato