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UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II
Promotion	Ultimate Fighting Championship
Date	July 7, 2012
Venue	MGM Grand Garden Arena
City	Las Vegas, Nevada
Event chronology
UFC 147: Belfort vs. Silva UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II UFC 149: Aldo vs. Koch

UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II is an upcoming mixed martial arts (MMA) pay-per-view event promoted by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on July 7, 2012. The card will feature six televised MMA bouts on pay-per-view, as well as five preliminary bouts. It is the seventeenth UFC event of the year and will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The card's main event features the UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva, defending his title against challenger Chael Sonnen. The co-main event features a rubber match between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz.

Background

Silva vs. Sonnen

The UFC Middleweight Championship between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen was originally intended to take place at UFC 147 at Havelange Stadium in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Due to a scheduling conflict with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the bout was subsequently moved to headline UFC 148 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The main event will feature the UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva defending his championship against UFC middleweight challenger Chael Sonnen at 185 pounds (83.9 kg). Sonnen is currently ranked as the number two middleweight in the world by Sherdog., while Silva is ranked as the number one middleweight in the world and also is the consensus number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world according to Sherdog, Yahoo! Sports, and ESPN. This will be the second fight between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen, with the previous match taking place in 2010 at UFC 117, also for the UFC Middleweight Championship. The champion, Anderson Silva, lost four straight rounds against Sonnen at UFC 117 before submitting his foe by triangle choke with 1:50 left in the 5th and final round. With the win, Silva retained the UFC Middleweight Championship, his undefeated record in the UFC, and his 13 fight win streak, in which proved to be his toughest fight in the UFC. The fight went on to receive the fight of the year award at the 2010 World MMA Awards.

Since UFC 117, Silva has gone on to defend his belt twice more, with KO and TKO wins over Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami, respectively. Sonnen has also gone undefeated since UFC 117, defeating Brian Stann and Michael Bisping, setting the stage for one of the most demanded rematches, and one of the most anticipated fights in UFC history.

Other Fights and Card Changes

In the co-main event at UFC 148, Urijah Faber was expected to fight for the UFC Bantamweight Championship against champion Dominick Cruz following their stint as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Live, but a torn ACL forced Cruz off the card. This would have been the third match between the two, with both Cruz and Faber holding a win against each other. Faber defended his Featherweight Championship against Cruz at WEC 26, and Cruz defended his bantamweight championship against Faber at UFC 132.

Faber was expected to face replacement Renan Barão for the Interim Bantamweight Championship, but that fight has been moved to the main event of UFC 149 in Calgary. Barão was originally scheduled to fight at this event on the preliminary card against Ivan Menjivar. Menjivar's new opponent is Mike Easton.

Also on the card is a long-awaited rubber match between Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin. Each fighter has defeated the other in their two prior meetings with Ortiz winning the first bout at UFC 59 and Griffin winning the rematch at UFC 106. Both of the fights resulted in a split decision. After 15 years in the UFC, Ortiz is planning on retiring after his fight with Griffin. He is 1-6-1 in his last eight fights, with his last win coming against Ryan Bader at UFC 132 in July of 2011. Before that win, Ortiz hadn't won since 2006.

Rich Franklin was expected to return to middleweight with a bout against Cung Le at the event. However, due to an injury to UFC 147 headliner Vitor Belfort, Franklin was pulled from the bout with Le and is now scheduled to replace Belfort and rematch Wanderlei Silva in a 190 lb catchweight bout on June 23, 2012 at UFC 147. Le is now expected to face veteran Patrick Côté. This will be Le's second fight in the UFC, losing his first match to Wanderlei Silva by TKO at UFC 139. Côté is returning to the UFC for the first time since 2010 after he lost a decision to Tom Lawlor at UFC 121. He was cut from the UFC after losing three fights in a row, including a loss in the middleweight championship against champion Anderson Silva. He is currently riding a four fight win streak, winning all four of his scheduled fights since leaving the UFC in 2010.

Other Events

In conjunction with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the UFC is planning five days of festivities for what they are calling International Fight Week, leading up to UFC 148. This will be the first ever International Fight Week, which is an annual event expected to take place every July to coincide with a Las Vegas UFC event. UFC President Dana White stated, "The first annual International Fight Week will be awesome, the fans are going to have a fight week experience better than anything they've ever had before, and each year we are going to build this thing to the point where every fan on the planet knows they have to come to Vegas for this July fight week at least once in their lives." Also taking place is the return of the UFC Fan Expo, which is two days of fighter meet-and-greets, training seminars, autograph sessions, and special events.

Official Fight Card

Main Card
Weight Class	Red Corner	vs.	Blue Corner	Method	Round	Time	Notes
Middleweight	Anderson Silva (c)	vs	Chael Sonnen
Light Heavyweight	Forrest Griffin	vs	Tito Ortiz
Middleweight	Cung Le	vs	Patrick Côté
Welterweight	Dong Hyun Kim	vs	Demian Maia
Featherweight	Chad Mendes	vs	Cody McKenzie
Bantamweight	Ivan Menjivar	vs	Mike Easton
Preliminary Card on FX
Lightweight	Gleison Tibau	vs	Khabib Nurmagomedov
Lightweight	Melvin Guillard	vs	Fabrício Camões
Middleweight	Constantinos Philippou	vs	Riki Fukuda
Lightweight	John Alessio	vs	Shane Roller
Lightweight	Rafaello Oliveira	vs	Yoislandy Izquierdo

^Note 1 For the UFC Middleweight Championship.

See also

• List of UFC events

References

1. "UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II". ufc.com. May 18, 2012.
2. "Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II moved to Las Vegas for UFC 148". Las Vegas Sun. April 24, 2012.
3. "Sherdog Middleweight Rankings". sherdog.com. May 18, 2012.
4. "MMA Power Rankings". ESPN. Retrieved May 19, 2012.
5. "Rankings: Silva vs. GSP". http://sports.yahoo.com/ufc. Yahoo! Sports. February 17, 2011. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
6. "Sherdog.com's Pound-for-Pound Top 10". Sherdog.com. August 30, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2012.
7. "World MMA Awards 2010 Winners". mmafighting.com. May 18, 2012.
8. "Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen Rematch Set for Super Bowl Weekend?". mmaintel.com. May 18, 2012.
9. "Dominick Cruz out of UFC 148 with torn ACL". Los Angeles Times. May 8, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
10. "UFC can move on while Cruz recovers". USA Today. May 18, 2012.
11. "Urijah Faber's New Opponent at UFC 146 is…". sports.yahoo.com. May 18, 2012.
12. Mrosko, Gene (June 9, 2012). "Jose Aldo injured, Urijah Faber vs Renan Barao fight moved to UFC 149 main event". mmamania.com. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
13. "Tito Ortiz: Griffin fight set for July 7". USA Today. March 20, 2012.
14. "Tito Ortiz Sticking to Retirement Plans: Fan Reaction". Yahoo! Sports. April 12, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
15. "Company man Franklin answers call again". ESPN. June 1, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
16. "Cung Le vs. Patrick Cote targeted for UFC 148". mmajunkie.com. May 30, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
17. "Patrick Cote returns to UFC in a big way". London Free Press. June 2, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
18. "International Fight Week adds to UFC 148 hoopla". Las Vegas Review-Journal. June 19, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
19. "UFC Fan Expo 2012 slated for July 6-7 in Las Vegas". mmamania.com. January 26, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2012.

External links

• Official UFC past events page
• UFC event results at Sherdog.com

Category:Ultimate Fighting Championship events Category:2012 in mixed martial arts