James Irvin vs. Wilson Gouveia Slated For UFC 102
James Irvin
With Chael Sonnen tapped to replace an injured Yushin Okami in May at UFC 98, James Irvin, who withdrew from his scheduled UFC 98 bout against Drew McFedries on Wednesday, will replace Sonnen in a bout against Wilson Gouveia on August 29th at UFC 102 in Portland, Oregon.
The news, which was first-reported by MMA Weekly, is just the latest in a string of card changes that have taken place this week. On Tuesday, Thiago Silva was bumped from his UFC 101 co-headliner against Forrest Griffin in favor of Anderson Silva and was then booked on Wednesday to fight Keith Jardine at UFC 102. On Thursday, Irvin withdrew from his bout against McFedries after suffering a knee injury and was replaced by Xavier Foupa-Pokam. Yesterday, Okami was forced out of his matchup with Dan Miller and replaced by Ed Herman, who was replaced by Sonnen just a few hours later.
Irvin (14-5) will be dropping down from light heavyweight to middleweight for the bout against Gouvia, which marks his return to the UFC after serving a nine-month suspension for testing positive for banned painkillers following his July 2008 loss to Anderson Silva. “The Sandman” is 3-2 since returning to the octagon in 2006, suffering a loss to Thiago Silva due to a knee injury and losing to the middleweight champion Silva while earning victories over Hector Ramirez, Luiz Cane, and Houston Alexander.
Gouveia (12-6) has compiled a 6-3 record in 9 UFC bouts, including back-to-back victories over Ryan Jensen and Jason MacDondald before suffering a third-round TKO loss to middleweight contender Nate Marquardt at UFC 95 in January.
For the latest UFC 102 news stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Tags: Chael Sonnen, James Irvin, Wilson Gouveia
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its good to see that Irvin’s knee injury wasnt serious, and I want to see how he fares at MW. I think he can do some damage there, but I do not see him being a champ. A top 5 guy yes in a year or two, but not a champ.
This is a great fight! This might have even worked out better than Sonnen vs Gouveia and Irvin vs. Mcfedries. Irvin and Gouveia will definitely stand and trade and put n a show.
hmm, this should be a good fight, but Wilson has alot more to bring to the table than Irvan. Although it “could” go either way, I think Gouveia has the edge in this fight.
this is a better fight than the original Mcfedries v Irvin, good stuff
Good matchup,personaly i’m rooting for Irvin. Gouveia is an ok striker with ok ground game. Irvin i feel has better stand-up, but he might be a bit slower. I also think he has better carsio than Gouveia. I’ve seen both guys gas out early before so i might be wrong. I don’t see this fight going the distance because both guys can finish eachother. They are both with they;re back to the wall so i’m thinking Irvin and Gouveia are coming with all that they have. I wasn’t looking foward to Irvin-Mcfedries because Mcfedries is not that good, but now that the fight got better i’m hoping to see a knockout.
Irvin by tko or ko in the late 2nd or early 3rd.
I just haven’t seen Irvin do really ANYTHING in the UFC that has made me thing he is a real contender at all. He is another Melvin Guillard or Scott Smith, or Chris Lyttle to me. He is powerful, comes in shape, and likes to fight for sure. But he hasn’t put on any string of wins to speak of, he is CONSTANTLY being plagued with injuries (probably where the pain killer addiction came from) and his pressense in the octagon hasn’t been felt. I do think MW is a better fit for him seeing how he was never a big LHW to begin with, but I do not expect to see him as a contender against guys like Marquart, Henderosn, Bisping, Wand, Maia or others. I want to see how he handles good grapplers, and what he is like in the future. Hope he does well because he is exciting, when he fights and when he wins.
I do agree that the Jury is still out on James Irvin… He is kinda stuck in limbo i guess..
He looked small a month ago but also looked as tho he was sitting at 185 already… out of all of his fights there seems to be a trend and that can’t beat big names you know like Loduane Sincaid
James Irvin’s 5 losses are:: Anderson Silva, Thiago Silva, Stephan Bonner, Mike Kyle, Loduane Sincaid..
but James has beaten:: Luis Cane (DQ knee to the face thats not legal) Terry Martin, Houston Alexander, Bo Cantrell 2x, and he has a NC with Bobby Southworth cuz they “fell outta the cage”
I’m loving the background checks man
hahaha well I’m really interested in what kind of competition that has been faced, and why the perception of greatness is what it is… I just enjoy doing it some people may find it annoying but hey you can learn alot by paying attention….
He {james} was a huge & powerful 205er so the move to 185 will be interesting, and Wilson is a worthy challenge at 185 so we will see.
Also interesting is the fact he moved to 185 when he got Baptizzzed by the 185 king??
Should be a good 1st round.