Chael Sonnen to Fight Yushin Okami at UFC 104 in October
Middleweight contenders Chael Sonnen and Yushin Okami will square off at UFC 104 on October 24 in Los Angeles, the UFC recently announced on its newly-launched Japanese website, ufcjapan.jp.
Sonnen (22-10-1), who had been scheduled to fight Wilson Gouveia at UFC 102 in August, was tapped to replace an injured Okami in May and take on Dan Miller at UFC 98, with Sonnen winning the fight by unanimous decision. An import from the WEC, Sonnen would have been the promotion’s last middleweight champion had title-holder Paulo Filho not failed to make weight for their late-2008 matchup, which Sonnen won by unanimous decision. After suffering a first-round submission defeat to Demian Maia in his UFC return, Sonnen bounced back with the victory over the former IFL champ Miller.
Okami (23-4) remains one of the top contenders in the 185-pound division, losing just once to former champ Rich Franklin in 8 UFC bouts, but has yet to receive a title shot due to his unimpressive wins caused his inability to finish of his opponents and streaks of inactivity. “Thunder” has fought just 3 times over the last 2 years since his June 2006 loss to Franklin, defeating Jason MacDonald by unanimous decision in October 2007 and Evan Tanner via second-round knockout last March. His most-recent win, a unanimous decision defeat of Dean Lister in December, was regarded as one of the most boring fights of the year and, despite the credentials of both Okami and Lister, failed to make the UFC 92 pay-per-view broadcast.
UFC 104 is headlined by a light heavyweight championship matchup featuring current title-holder Lyoto Machida against challenger Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Heavyweight contenders Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez are set to square off in the PPV card’s co-main event, while Antoni Hardonk vs. Pat Berry, Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida, and Ryan Bader vs. Eric Schafer are also rumored for the card.
For the latest UFC 104 rumors check out the MMAFrenzy.com UFC rumors section.
Tags: Chael Sonnen, Yushin Okami
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This card is shapping out rather nicely. I might ctach some flack, but I really like Chael and I hope that he puts it to Okami and not get caught in a submission (as we all know he is prone to). He just needs to stick with his wrestling and GnP like he did in the first fight with Paulo.
He didn’t GnP Filho. In fact, he made a studious point of staying off the ground. He did ground and patsy-kick the legs of Filho, but wasn’t going to get caught in the ground war because he didn’t want Filho to mistake his arm for a chicken wing and try to eat it.
bsbiz – I was talking about his first fight with Paulo, not his second fight.
I believe it would be in Okami’s best interest to keep this fight standing. Chael looked stiffer than than shots of whiskey when trading blows with Dan Miller in their bout. But his wrestling and top control saw him through to a UD. Okami has never realy been a submission expert, and Sonnen showed against miller that hes been develpoing his sub defence. Both guys have made their careers by grinding out decisions, and staying active. I will be interested to see who’s the grinder here.
The deciding factor would be Okami’s takedown deffense. He hasn’t faught someone with Chael’s wrestling experience before, I think the closest that he has ever faced was Jake Sheilds and Okami lost that fight via decision.
i like this card so far. I’m thinking of going to this one. This is a good match. Both fighter could use a big win from one another to get back in the 185 mix. I like sonnen but i would love to see a rematch between okami and anderson. Who knows how that first fight would have ended hadn’t anderson hit okami with that illegal blow. I honestly want someone to explain to me why okami was once considered the #1 contender @ mw. Like the article said, his fights have been boring and unimpressive.
I hope that Eric Shafer chokes out Ryan “Darth Overrated” Bader.
how dare you!
“I WANT BJ’S BELT!”
I like both Sonnen and Okami, so its hard for me to support one over the other.
I just hope its a great fight, and the winner makes some headway up the MW rankings…
i think okami was considered the number 1 contender [and in some eyes still is] due to his record and fight with anderson, which many thought he was winning until the illegal upkick. okami also was the original challenger to anderson at ufc 90 before he got injured. okami has had trouble staying healthy, but he is a top 5 mw in the ufc imo.
if he keeps the fight standing he has the advantage and i think he is well rounded enough to win a decision if the fight goes to the ground. he is just too well rounded for sonnen to beat him imo.
I hate to say this, because I think Yushin Okami is one of the best 185ers in the sport, but I almost see this fight with Sonnen as his last chance to impress the UFC front office.
In a way I was shocked when his fight with Dean Lister, a real talent on the ground and pretty good MW in his own right, wasn’t even shown on the PPV they fought on.
“Thunder” needs to make something happen against Sonnen, or his next nickname is going to the the Vanishing Man…