A source close to Shane Nelson’s (12-3) camp has confirmed he will take on Aaron Riley (27-11-1) at UFC 101 scheduled to take place in Philadelphia in the UFC’s first event ever in the state of Pennsylvania.

This will be a rematch of a fight that first took place at UFC 96, but ended in controversy when referee Rick Fike stopped the bout prematurely. Nelson, who was coming off season 8 of TUF, had dropped Riley with a big shot and as Riley was kicking up to defend himself, Fike jumped in to stop the fight.

The premature stoppage did not please the Columbus, Ohio crowd at all as it was clear Riley was fine to keep fighting. Riley is known for his iron chin and his fights are almost always in the discussion for “Fight of the Night” honors. While Nelson gladly took the victory he felt the two could meet in a rematch saying afterwards that “We can do it again”.

This is a little bitter sweet for Riley who was upset after the fight, not only about the stoppage, but the fact he had a lot of friends and family members there at UFC 96 to see him fight for the first time and he wanted to put on a show. At UFC 101 he will get another opportunity to show he belongs in the big show and Nelson will get the chance to prove his win over Riley was no fluke.

UFC 101 is set to take place August 8th in Philadelphia, PA at a venue that is TBA. The show is headlined by Nelson’s trainer and current UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn (13-5-1) taking on top contender Kenny Florian (12-3) for the lightweight title.

Other bouts announced so far are:
Forrest Griffin (18-5) vs. Thiago Silva (13-1)
Amir Sadollah (1-0) vs. Johny Hendricks (5-0)
Matt Riddle (2-0) vs. Dan Cramer (1-0)
Thiago Tavares (14-3) vs. Melvin Guillard (21-8-2)
David Baron (16-3) vs. Rob Emerson (8-7)
Kurt Pellegrino (13-4) vs. Josh Neer (25-7-1)
Jesse Lennox (10-1) vs. Danillo Villefort (9-2)
Kendall Grove (12-5) vs. TBA

Props – MMA Weekly

By: Dusty Adams

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