With Sunday’s late announcement by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the promotion made the upcoming UFC 144 event in Japan official for this coming February.
The promotion announced the full lineup for UFC 144, identifying twelve bouts for the card.
Among those not previously named was a bantamweight match between Japanese fighter Norifumi ‘Kid’ Yamamoto (18-5, 1NC) vs. English fighter Vaughan Lee (11-7-1), and a featherweight bout featuring Chinese national Tiequan ‘The Mongolian Wolf’ Zhangg (15-2) vs. Leonard ‘Bad Boy’ Garcia (15-8-1).
Both bouts have been slated for the preliminary card of the Japanese event.
UFC Japan: Edgar vs. Henderson (aka UFC 144) is scheduled for February 26 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
‘Kid’ Yamamoto is likely in dire straights as far as his Octagon career goes, having dropped both of his Octagon appearances and carrying a 1-4 record into this fight with Lee. ‘Kid’ suffered decision losses, the last to Darren Uyenoyama at UFC on FOX this month, and to Demetrious Johnson at UFC 126 last February.
Lee debuted with the UFC this month also, losing a split decision to Chris Cariaso at UFC 138. The loss ended a five fight undefeated streak which saw the Brit go 4-0-1, with all four victories coming by TKO or submission in the first round.
Yamamoto had better find some of his “glory” from his past or this will be an awful short fight, as well as his last in the Octagon.
‘The Mongolian Wolf’ showed his one dimension game as he attempted multiple guillotine chokes against Darren Elkins in his last fight. The two met at UFC 136 with Elkins controlling much of he fight from the top position, all the while avoiding his Chinese opponents submission attempts. Zhang is 1-1 in the UFC and 2-2 overall under Zuffa.
Garcia may find himself with a pink slip too if he loses this match, after losing his last two matches. Both of those defeats were rematches with opponents that he’d beaten last year. ‘Bad Boy’s’ last fight took place at UFC 136 against Nam Phan, a rematch of their TUF 12 Finale bout which saw Garcia win by split decision. This time, Phan would earn a solid unanimous decision and would earn them both another “Fight of the Night” bonus. The other loss came to Chan Sung Jung (aka the ‘Korean Zombie’) last March at UFC Fight Night 24. Jung would earn a submission victory in the second, becoming the first fighter to use a “Twister” submission in the UFC.
Both of these fighters are being thrown a bone by facing a “lesser” opponent. Garcia is known for his exciting matchups but hasn’t finished an opponent since 2008. While Zhang needs to find a way of rounding out his skills, and what better way to do it than against someone who likely won’t finish him in three rounds.