It’s mixed martial arts weekend once again. Wasn’t it a couple of weeks ago that we were treated to the excitement of Strikeforce featuring Gina Carano vs Cyborg Santos? Now, UFC 102 Couture vs Nogueira comes to the fore. The Randy Couture vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fight is UFC 102’s main card, but the line up this weekend is filled with nine other mixed martial arts matches.

Here’s a brief backgrounder on the fight and how this match up came to be (courtesy of Wikipedia): “Randy Couture was originally offered a title
defense against Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 81, however turned the fight down after his resignation from the UFC in October 2007. While Couture and the UFC sorted out their legal issues, Nogueira defeated Tim Sylvia for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship becoming the first fighter to hold both PRIDE and UFC title belts. Nogueira was then set to coach against Frank Mir on the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter with the two facing off for the Interim Championship after the season aired. In the meantime Couture and the UFC reconciled and it was announced that he would return to the Octagon to defend his title against Brock Lesnar at UFC 91. Neither Couture or Nogueira were successful in their defense efforts and will now face each other in what amounts to the loser bracket of the UFC’s mini heavyweight tournament.”

The UFC 102 lineup has ten exciting matches. The line up of UFC 102, aside from the Couture vs Nogueira fight, also features a match between Keith Jardine and Thiago Silva. Posted below is the complete list. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC 102) will be on August 29, 2009 at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon.

Main card

Heavyweight bout: Randy Couture vs. Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira
Light Heavyweight bout: Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva
Middleweight bout: Chris Leben vs. Jake Rosholt
Middleweight bout: Nate Marquardt vs. Demian Maia
Light Heavyweight bout: Brandon Vera vs. Krzysztof Soszynski

Preliminary card

Middleweight bout: Ed Herman vs. Aaron Simpson
Heavyweight bout: Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Chris Tuchscherer
Heavyweight bout: Justin McCully vs. Mike Russow
Heavyweight bout: Tim Hague vs. Todd Duffee
Middleweight bout: Nick Catone vs. Mark Muñoz
Lightweight bout: Marcus Aurelio vs. Evan Dunham

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