UFC Fight Night 22 | UFC Betting Sites - The Best MMA Online Bookies

UFC Fight Night 22: The New Guys

(Natal vs. Travis Lutter, 5/21/10. Props: FightReloaded)
Though you won’t see any new faces on the televised main card, UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares will feature three fighters in the prelims who will be stepping into the Octagon for th…

(Natal vs. Travis Lutter, 5/21/10. Props: FightReloaded)

Though you won’t see any new faces on the televised main card, UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares will feature three fighters in the prelims who will be stepping into the Octagon for the first time. No pressure, guys. They’ve got the talent, but can they overcome the dreaded Jitters? Get to know these men below, and keep an eye out.

RAFAEL NATAL (MW)
Experience: 12-2 record (10 wins by stoppage within the first two rounds), with multiple appearances in Ring of Combat and various Brazilian promotions. Most recently knocked out Travis Lutter at Moosin: God of Martial Arts in May. Also holds a win over UFC/WEC vet Danillo Villefort.
Will be facing: Rich Attonito (8-3, 1-0 UFC)
Lowdown: Not to be confused with the King of Clay, Rafael "Sapo" Natal is a BJJ black belt under Draculino Magalhaes, and works as an instructor at Renzo Gracie’s in New York. His nickname means "Toad"; he picked it up as a 14-year-old during his first capoeira class in Brazil, and like all unflattering Brazilian nicknames, it stuck. Though grappling is Natal’s strong suit — and carried him to a gold medal at the Mundials as a blue belt in 2005 — Rafael loves a good brawl. As he told UFC.com, "Sometimes in the academy I’ll call a teammate to spar in that style (laughs) – no technique, only brawling, closed eyes, landing fists. This is excellent to take off the stress."

Natal was formerly the middleweight champion of Ring of Combat, but lost his title to Victor O’Donnell last year in unfortunate fashion: "I opted to trade strikes and the first round wasn’t going good for me. At the end of the first round the fight was on the ground and I was on the top, the round finished and I helped him up and went to my corner. The doctor asked me something and I didn’t answer because I didn’t speak English, so he stopped the fight! I tried to complain and nothing changed. Hey, don’t worry I improved my English and I won’t lose this way anymore."

UFC Fight Night 22 Fight Card: Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares

Filed under: UFCAs a lead-in to premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 12 featuring Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck, a UFC Fight Night card will air live Sept. 15 on Spike TV from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

Middleweights Nate Marquardt and…

Filed under: UFC

As a lead-in to premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 12 featuring Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck, a UFC Fight Night card will air live Sept. 15 on Spike TV from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

Middleweights Nate Marquardt and Rousimar Palhares will battle in the main event of UFC Fight Night 22 with three other bouts rounding out the televised portion of the card. The event airs at 8 p.m. ET and TUF 12 will follow it at 10 p.m. ET.

The fight card is below.

The Curse Is On: Matt Wiman Becomes the Latest Main-Carder to Drop Out of UFC Fight Night 22

(Matt Wiman’s face-off against Shane Nelson gets heated before UFC 107. Poor, sweet Natasha. She has no idea what’s going on. / Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)
Just one day after his opponent Mac Danzig fell off the card, UFC Fight Night 22 co-headliner M…

Matt Wiman Shane Nelson Natasha Wicks UFC 107 photos
(Matt Wiman’s face-off against Shane Nelson gets heated before UFC 107. Poor, sweet Natasha. She has no idea what’s going on. / Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Just one day after his opponent Mac Danzig fell off the card, UFC Fight Night 22 co-headliner Matt Wiman has also withdrawn from the event due to a broken arm suffered in training. The Curse of Fight Night 22 has already claimed Alan Belcher (detached retina), as well as Nick Catone (shoulder and back) and Aaron Simpson (staph). Austin-area police are currently rounding up local witches and voodoo priestesses for questioning.

Still, one man’s misfortune is another’s unbelievable opportunity. Stepping in for Wiman against Efrain Escudero will be undefeated Brazilian prospect Charles "do Bronx" Oliveira, who made his UFC debut in dramatic fashion earlier this month at Jones vs. Matyushenko, when he tapped Darren Elkins via armbar in just 41 seconds; the performance scored him the event’s Submission of the Night bonus. Another big win just a month-and-a-half later could put Oliveira on the lightweight map. Will he rise to the occasion?

Mac Danzig’s Injury Forces More Changes to UFC Fight Night 22

(Poor vegan son-of-a-bitch can’t catch a break. Photo courtesy of MMABay)
Due to a chest injury suffered in training, TUF 6 winner Mac Danzig has withdrawn from his co-headlining rematch against Matt Wiman at UFC Fight Night 22 (September 15th, Austi…

(Poor vegan son-of-a-bitch can’t catch a break. Photo courtesy of MMABay)

Due to a chest injury suffered in training, TUF 6 winner Mac Danzig has withdrawn from his co-headlining rematch against Matt Wiman at UFC Fight Night 22 (September 15th, Austin). Danzig and Wiman previously met at UFC 115 in June, with Danzig losing by a controversial first-round technical decision; the referee stopped the fight due to a guillotine choke despite the fact that Danzig didn’t tap and wasn’t out, leading to an unfortunate "WTFIYP?" moment in the cage. It was Danzig’s fourth loss in his last five fights, and he’ll now have to wait a little longer to redeem himself.

Stepping up against Wiman at the Austin event will be TUF 8 lightweight winner Efrain Escudero, who’s coming off his unanimous decision victory over Dan Lauzon at UFC 114, and was originally supposed to face John Gunderson on the prelims. Now, Gunderson is expected to face returning UFC vet Yves Edwards (38-16-1, 6-4 UFC), who hasn’t competed in the Octagon since his TKO loss to Joe Stevenson at UFC 61. Since then, he’s made appearances in Bodog Fight, EliteXC, Strikeforce, and Shine Fights, and most recently scored a decision over Luis Palomino at last week’s Bellator event.

Marquardt vs. Palhares Taken Off UFC 118, Will Now Serve as UFN 22’s Main Event

(Rousimar Palhares finishes Lucio Linhares at UFC 107 last December. Five of Palhares’s last seven wins have come via heel-hook submission. Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly)
With Alan Belcher’s main event fight against Demian Maia at UFC Fight Night 22 (S…

(Rousimar Palhares finishes Lucio Linhares at UFC 107 last December. Five of Palhares’s last seven wins have come via heel-hook submission. Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly)

With Alan Belcher‘s main event fight against Demian Maia at UFC Fight Night 22 (September 15, Austin) nixed due to an eye injury, it’s now being reported that the Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares feature scheduled for UFC 118 (August 28, Boston) will be pushed back two and a half weeks to serve as the Austin card’s headliner. Maia hasn’t been officially dropped from the UFN 22 lineup yet, though it seems likely that he’ll get a replacement opponent on a future event.

As for UFC 118, some shifting will need to be done to fill the empty main card slot, and potentially fill the hole that the replacement could create in the Spike TV Prelim broadcast. The lineup currently looks like this…

Alan Belcher Out of ‘UFC Fight Night 22’ Main Event Due to Detached Retina

("That’s it, go to sleeeeeeep." Alan Belcher and his little friend Johnny gang up on Patrick Cote at UFC 113. Photo courtesy of ESPN.)
UFC middleweight contender (and unapologetic baby-choker) Alan Belcher confirmed yesterday that he won’t …

("That’s it, go to sleeeeeeep." Alan Belcher and his little friend Johnny gang up on Patrick Cote at UFC 113. Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

UFC middleweight contender (and unapologetic baby-choker) Alan Belcher confirmed yesterday that he won’t be able to headline UFC Fight Night 22 against Demian Maia, due to a detached retina. As he wrote:

While I was in brazil I started losing my vision in my right eye. I saw a dr that told me to go back to u.s. immediately. My friend/surgeon from biloxi got me an emergency surgery scheduled in alabama now just trying to recover. No contact for 6 weeks. Sorry to my trainers. Sorry to ufc & demian Maia, I know he has been training specifically for me. Sorry to my fans as well. As long as I get released from dr I will try to make ufn 22 to see my fans and watch the fights

In response, Demian Maia tweeted: "I dont know who will be my oponent. I think I still in the UFN 22 main event, but Im not sure. Ill let you guys know…"

In other words, Chris Leben should probably start warming up. The current lineup of UFN 22 (September 15th, Austin) is after the jump.