Alessio Sakara vs. Rousimar Palhares Added to UFC 99
Alessio Sakara
A middleweight bout between Alessio Sakara and Rousimar Palhares has been added to the preliminary lineup for UFC 99, which takes place on June 13 at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany.
The matchup was first reported by MMA Weekly on Monday.
Sakara (17-7) was originally slated to meet Alan Belcher at UFC 99 but Belcher will instead square off with UFC newcomer Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 100 in July. “Legionarius” is 4-4 with one no contest in nine bouts inside the octagon. Sakara dropped down to middleweight from light heavyweight following a 3-3 start to his UFC career, but suffered a first-round TKO to Chris Leben last March at UFC 82 in his debut at the new weight class. In his most recent bout, Sakara earned his first win at 185-pounds with a first-round knockout of Joe Vedepo at UFC Fight Night 15 last July.
Palhares (9-2) debuted in the UFC last May with a first-round submission of Ivan Salaverry. After suffering a unanimous decision loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 88 in September, “Toquinho” rebounded with a unanimous decision win over Jeremy Horn at UFC 93 in January.
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Tags: Alessio Sakara, rousimar palhares
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Both guys need the win at this point. Sakara a little more so as a loss could find him on the way out door.
Wow, I really see Palhares taking Sakara out of the UFC roster in this fight. I thought that Maia and Palhares would make a very interesting fight aswell. Maia has the slick jiu-jitsu, but Palhares is a tank. I’m not sure if I read it here(I think I did), but Maia gets the title shot in August. This year is going to be interesting.
Yes I did read it here, about five reports below this one.
I like Sakara, Palhares has an awesome ground game though. Yeah both guys need a win. Your right timcat, if Sakara loses he’s most likely on his way out of the UFC.
Palhares has shown great sumbmissions, but he’s also shown a lack of “killer Instinct”, meaning he’s been unable to finish guys, so he needs to not only win, but put on an impressive performance.
Personally i want Sakara to win because i like him more than Palhares, but i have to give this one to Palhares only because he has good takedowns, he’s stronger than Sakara and his great JJ is going to win the fight for him.
Marvelknight4 “Palhares has shown great sumbmissions”, but he’s also shown a lack of “killer Instinct”????
ok Palhares has submitted 5 guys in a row until the Henderson and Horn fight. In the Horn fight he broke his hand in the first round {kind of hard to hold a submission with a broken hand} ,and the Hendo fight he showed good chin ,submissions,and kicks, I really don’t see how anyone can say he’s not trying to finish his opponents.. Plus there is no chame in losing to Hendo and he even came close to finishing the fight. If anything Hendo was the one trying to out point Palhares ..If you don’t believe me look at the fight and listen to what Hendo says at the end “sorry I wasn’t as agressive tonight, but I knew I could keep it on the feet and strike”
Tough fight for Sakara, but if he does lose the fight, its unlikely the UFC will drop him. The UFC is planning on moving into Italy soon, and Sakara is fighting out of Rome. He is an asset for sure.
dude who hasn’t ko’d sakara? i’m surprised he’s still around, or atleast was surprised till Ken brought up the fact the their italy bound. Palhares is going to win by sub.
I think it is a liitle bit unfair to trivialize what Sakara has done. He got submitted by Dean Lister and KO by Leben, Houston Alexander, and Drew McFedries… All of those guys are known for finishing fights and none of them had hin out cold. I think Sakara is an exciting fighter. He made the move to ATT a couple weeks before his loss to Leben (which he looked very frail after weight cut) and took Vedepo (who is not high caliber) out quickly with a head kick, which he has never shown before. Good fight here.
Sakara v Rousimar is a pretty good fight imo, the Italy thing is a pretty good theroy but if the UFC does cut Sakara (if he loses) he could always come back to compete for the org when the go to Italy…. I mean hell Sakara has been with the UFC since 2005 so they must like the guy he switched weight classes which seems to always get the fighter a extended stay in the UFC…
Sakara(13~7~0 {1NC}) is 4~4 (1NC) in the UFC which isn’t half bad, but despite the fact he has some rather cool tatts he is going to be tested against Rousimar… Rousimar(9~2~0) has gone 2~1 in his stint in the UFC and his only loss is to Hendo which was expected for a guy in his tenth fight of his career and plus people were saying if Hendo lost he would be cut, so needless to say Hendo has a “reason” to fight one of his best fights… Anyways I’ looking forward ot this fight forsure, should be entertaining..