UFC beefs up Anaheim card, will schedule Silva-Sonnen rematch by early 2011
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In addition to a compelling main event Oct. 23 at Honda Center pitting heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and unbeaten contender Cain Velasquez, the UFC has added two other notable bouts to the card.
Former light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz will fight Matt Hamill, and former Strikeforce champion Jake Shields will make his UFC debut against Martin Kampmann in a welterweight bout. A victory would leave Shields strongly positioned to land a title shot at the winner of December’s Georges St-Pierre-Josh Koscheck championship bout.
UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta also told The Times that the epic middleweight title fight between champion Anderson Silva and the man who nearly beat him, Chael Sonnen, will generate an automatic rematch in Las Vegas -- either at the UFC’s New Year’s Eve weekend card or its Super Bowl card in early February.
Fertitta said Silva suffered bruised (not broken) ribs while nearly losing to Sonnen in their Aug. 7 fight in Oakland.
‘Bruised ribs can be more painful than broken, but we’ll wait for him to heal, and that fight will happen,’ Fertitta said.
-- Lance Pugmire