On February 26th, 2012, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will be traveling to Saitama, Japan for what could be one of the biggest events in UFC history.
UFC 144 will take place at the Saitama Super Arena. The event will be headlined by Frankie Edgar, the current UFC lightweight champion, who looks to successfully defend his title against No. 1 contender Ben Henderson.
Also featured on the main card is Jake Shields, who will look to bounce back from his previous defeats when he squares off with Yoshihiro Akiyama in a welterweight showdown.
On top of this already exceptional fight card, UFC president Dana White recently revealed that he would be adding two more major fights to the event.
White announced that Japanese star Yushin Okami will meet the up-and-coming and fellow middleweight Tim Boetsch when the UFC travels to Japan.
Okami is considered by many to be among the top-five middleweights in the world. He is recently coming off a defeat to arguably the world’s greatest fighter in Anderson Silva.
His opponent, Boetsch, is currently undefeated since dropping to the 185-pound weight division. He will look to use Okami as a stepping stone when action begins on February 26th.
However, White didn’t stop there. He added another major fight to the card.
The UFC president announced that Anthony Pettis will step foot inside the Octagon to take on highly dangerous submission artist in Joe Lauzon.
Pettis is currently on the best stretch of his mixed martial arts career. He’s been declared victorious in five of his last six bouts.
However, opponent Lauzon is coming off arguably the biggest upset of his young career. The 27-year-old defeated Melvin Guillard in a matter of 47 seconds at UFC 136.
Stay tuned for more information regarding UFC 144.
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