The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to “The Land of the Rising Sun” after a twelve year absence with UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson live from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
The last show, UFC 29 took place in December 2000 and drew 1,414 fans to the Differ Ariake Arena who saw Tito Ortiz defend the Middleweight title (now light heavyweight), as well as seeing Pat Miletich defend the lightweight strap (now welterweight title).
Tonight fans will see UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar square off with former WEC champ Ben Henderson in the main event, while former UFC and PRIDE champ, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson faces Ryan Bader in a 211-lbs catchweight bout.
Jackson failed to make weight for his light heavyweight bout, hitting the scales at 211-lbs missing weight by six-pounds. Bader agreed to the fight anyway and will receive 20% of Jackson’s purse at the end of the night.
The live event kicks off at 7:30pm EST (4:30pm EST) on Facebook.com/UFC with one prelim match before the action switches over to television at 8pm ET (5pm PST). Fans in the U.S. can catch the action on FX, while in Canada it will be Rogers Sportsnet, and in the UK fans can tune into ESPN.
The pay-per-view card, which features seven bouts and will last four hours, begins at 10pm EST (7pm PST).
For those who cannot access part, or all of the live event, visit Sherdog.com for their ‘Play-by-Play’ coverage.
The full ‘Quick Results’ for UFC 144 are as follows:
Main Card (Pay-per-view)
Lightweight Championship bout: Ben Henderson def. Frankie Edga via Unanimous Decision (49-46, 48-47, 49-46)
Catchweight (211 lbs) bout: Ryan Bader def. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Heavyweight bout: Mark Hunt def. Cheick Kongo via TKO (Punches) – R1 @ 2:11
Welterweight bout: Jake Shields def. Yoshihiro Akiyama Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Middleweight bout: Tim Boetsch def. Yushin Okami via TKO (Punches) – R1 @ 0:54
Featherweight bout: Hatsu Hioki def. Bart Palaszewski via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Lightweight bout: Anthony Pettis def. Joe Lauzon via KO (Head kick) – R1 @ 1:21
Preliminary Card (FX)
Lightweight bout: Takanori Gomi def. Eiji Mitsuoka via TKO (Punches) – R2 @ 2:21
Bantamweight bout: Vaughan Lee def. Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto via Submission (armbar) – R1 @ 4:29
Middleweight bout: Riki Fukuda def. Steve Cantwell via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Bantamweight bout: Chris Cariaso def. Takeya Mizugaki via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Preliminary Card (Facebook/Youtube)
Featherweight bout: Issei Tamura def. Tiequan Zhang via KO (Punch) – R2 @ 0:32