The Ultimate Fighting Championship made the official announcement Tuesday for “UFC 128: Shogun vs. Evans” to take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on March 19. The show will headline with a light heavyweight title bout between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua defending his title against former champion “Suga” Rashad Evans.
UFC President Dana White commented on the main event title fight,
“This is the light heavyweight title fight that everyone has been waiting to see. Shogun has been on an absolute tear and proved that by knocking out Lyoto Machida to take the belt. Now he faces Rashad Evans, who is coming off back-to-back wins over Thiago Silva and Rampage Jackson and has never been hungrier to reclaim the title. With the main event and the other fights we’re putting together, we’re bringing another awesome card to New Jersey and I’m excited to get back to the East Coast.”
Also confirmed for the card is the UFC debut of former WEC featherweight champion, “The California Kid” Urijah Faber, who will square-off with former WEC bantamweight champion Eddie Wineland in a bantamweight match-up.
Faber is coming off a first round submission of Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 52 in November and Wineland is currently riding a four-fight win streak, most recently defeating Ken Stone with a knockout body slam in the first round at WEC 53 in December.
Here is what the unofficial UFC 128 card looks like as of today:
- Mauricio Rua vs. Rashad Evans
- Urijah Faber vs. Eddie Wineland
- Joseph Benavidez vs. Ian Loveland
- Mirko Filipovic vs. Brendan Schaub
- Jim Miller vs. Kamal Shalorus
- Chael Sonnen vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
- Ricardo Almeida vs. Mike Pyle
- Kurt Pellegrino vs. Gleison Tibau
- Anthony Njokuani vs. Edson Barboza Jr.
- Luis Artur Cane Jr.vs. Karlos Vemola
Now that Chael Sonnen has been suspended, we will have to wait and see if Akiyama gets a new opponent or what the UFC plans to do.
This should be a great fight to watch. I am hoping that Shogun is prepared for this fight with recovery from knee surgery. I subscribe and work for DISH Network, so I will be watching this fight in HD on PPV. I can’t wait to see this fight in a crystal clear picture. I just hope Shogun is ready for it.