The UFC announced the remainder of the UFC 97: REDEMPTION card today. The already sold out event, set for April 18th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada, will be headlined by UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites and Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell vs. Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua. The UFC has also made official ten more fights to round off the card.
The headline fights promise to be exciting and may end quickly. Anderson Silva, arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, looks to continue his winning ways against world-class grappler, Thales Leites. If Leites can’t get this fight to the ground quickly, it may be a short night against such a top notch striker as Anderson Silva.
In what may well be a make or break fight for both, Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Rua looks to be an exciting stand-up match in the co-main event. Liddell is coming off of a devastating KO loss to current Light Heavyweight Champ, Rashad Evans. Losing three of his last four fights, Liddell needs an impressive win to keep his career in the UFC secure.
Mauricio Rua, coming off of a lackluster victory over Mark Coleman, hasn’t looked very impressive since coming to the UFC and could use an impressive victory to keep him in the Light Heavyweight picture of the UFC landscape.
Krzystof Soszynski a.k.a. K-Sos of The Ultimate Fighter 8 will have his toughest challenge to date when he faces off with former WEC Light Heavyweight Champion, Brian Stann. This match-up will be a classic grappler vs. striker with Krzystof having impressive jiu-jitsu and Stann being a monstrous puncher.
Fans may not want to blink when agile heavyweights Cheick Kongo and Antoni Hardonk go at it. With both being heavy-handed and Kongo’s vicious kicks, this matchup promises to be a stand-up fight fan’s dream. Kongo is coming off of an impressive KO of Mostapha Al-Turk, making it his second KO in a row.
Most fans remember Steve Cantwell, the WEC title-holder of their now defunct Light Heavyweight division, for his arm-bar victory over Razak Al-Hassan, where he hyper-extended the UFC newcomer’s arm before the referee stopped the fight. He will be fighting the very tough Luiz Cane who is bringing a 9-1 record with back-to-back TKO victories.
Cane’s only loss came at UFC 79 where he was disqualified for delivering a knee to the head of James Irvin who was still on the ground. Eight of Cane’s nine victories have come by (T)KO. With Cantwell’s in-your-face aggressive style matched against Cane’s lethal striking, it is very doubtful this is going the distance.
The complete fight card for UFC 97: REDEMPTION is as follows:
ANDERSON SILVA vs. THALES LEITES
CHUCK LIDDELL vs. MAURICIO RUA
KRZYSTOF SOSZYNSKI vs. BRIAN STANN
CHEICK KONGO vs. ANTONI HARDONK
STEVE CANTWELL vs. LUIZ CANE
ELIOT MARSHALL vs. MIKE CIESNOLEVICZ
DENIS KANG vs. XAVIER FOUPA-POKAM
NATE QUARRY vs. JASON MACDONALD
DAVID LOISEAU vs. ED HERMAN
MARK BOCEK vs. DAVID BIELKHEDEN
RYO CHONAN vs. TJ GRANT
SAM STOUT vs. MATT WIMAN