It’s just another Manic Monday for the UFC. Early this morning, company officials hosted a press conference at the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo Ballroom in Japan to officially announce the UFC’s return to the Land of the Rising Sun.
UFC 144 takes place February 26th inside the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama. A lightweight title tilt between champion Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson will serve as the night’s featured attraction.
In addition to the 155-pound championship affair, the organization also confirmed the show’s entire roster.
The event begins at 10AM local time on Sunday to accommodate a live 8PM ET/5PM PT start time on Saturday in North America. The main bouts will be made available via pay-per-view.
UFC 29 in December of 2000 was the last time the organization hosted a card in Japan.
Here are the athletes expected to appear in the extravaganza:
Preliminary Bouts:
Tiequan Zhang vs. Leonard Garcia
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Chris Cariaso
Steve Cantwell vs. Riki Fukuda
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto vs. Vaughan Lee
Hatsu Hioki vs. Bart Palaszewski
Takanori Gomi vs. George Sotiropoulos
Yushin Okami vs. Tim Boetsch
Main Bouts:
Joe Lauzon vs. Anthony Pettis
Jake Shields vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Cheick Kongo vs. Mark Hunt
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Ryan Bader
Ben Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar (UFC Lightweight Champion)
Loading ...