What a roller coaster it has been over the last few months for former PRIDE star Thierry Sokoudjou (4-1-0). First he was rumored to the UFC, then he almost signed with EliteXC until at the last minute it all broke down. Most recently everyone thought that he was going to be heading back to Japan to fight for K-1 HERO’s, but now he’s back to where he started from and he’s jumping back into a cage. If you remember, one of Sokoudjou’s early fights was a loss in the WEC so fighting in a cage is nothing new to this fighter. The UFC officially announced today, “‘The African Assassin’, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, makes his UFC debut against unbeaten sharpshooter Lyoto Machida (11-0-0).”

For those of you who don’t know, Sokoudjou doesn’t have the biggest resume under his belt but like Houston Alexander, he holds some impressive knockouts. He first surprised everybody back at PRIDE 33 in Las Vegas when he knocked out then top 10 Light Heavyweight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (12-3-0). Sokoudjou followed that up with another knockout over Nogueira’s teammate Ricardo Arona (13-5-0), another top 10 Light Heavyweight who was looking for revenge, and Arona was the same guy who defeated Wanderlei Silva (31-7-1).

If it’s excitement you want as a UFC fan, it’s excitement you’re going to get with Sokoudjou who has a world class background in Judo but has learned to strike with the best of them. He’s an extremely explosive fighter, who I believe is more impressive than Houston Alexander.

If you want to read the full story from UFC.com, here’s the URL: http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=8674