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UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II
The poster for UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II
Promotion	Ultimate Fighting Championship
Date	July 7, 2012
Venue	MGM Grand Garden Arena
City	Las Vegas, Nevada
Event chronology
UFC 147: Silva vs. Franklin II UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II UFC on Fuel TV: Muñoz vs. Weidman

UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II is an upcoming mixed martial arts (MMA) pay-per-view event promoted by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on July 7, 2012. The card will feature six televised MMA bouts on pay-per-view, as well as five preliminary bouts. It is the seventeenth UFC event of the year and will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The card's main event features the UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva defending the title against Chael Sonnen. The co-main event is a rubber match between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz.

Background

Silva vs. Sonnen

The UFC Middleweight Championship main event match between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen was originally intended to take place at UFC 147 at Havelange Stadium in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Due to a scheduling conflict with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the bout was subsequently moved to headline UFC 148 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Sonnen is currently ranked as the number two middleweight in the world by Sherdog, while Silva is ranked as the number one middleweight in the world and the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world, according to Sherdog, Yahoo! Sports, and ESPN.

The fight is a rematch of the main event at UFC 117, which was also for the UFC Middleweight Championship. In that match, Silva, after losing four rounds on points, made Sonnen submit to a triangle armbar with 1:50 left in the fight. Sonnen landed 320 strikes against Silva, more than any other fighter since UFC 5 when Royce Gracie landed 355 strikes against Ken Shamrock. Silva had only absorbed 166 strikes combined in his previous 11 matches. With the win, Silva retained the UFC Middleweight Championship, his undefeated record in the UFC, and extended his win streak to 13. The fight received the Fight of the Year award at the 2010 World MMA Awards.

Since UFC 117, Silva has defended the title twice, with KO and TKO wins over Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami, respectively. Sonnen is also undefeated since UFC 117, defeating Brian Stann and Michael Bisping, setting the stage for one of the most demanded and anticipated rematches, and fights, in UFC history.

Since a win over Nate Marquardt in early 2010, Sonnen has been a polarizing figure due to his harsh criticism of Silva and his unrelenting trash talk, including comments directed towards Silva's manager, teammates, coaches, wife, and home country of Brazil. Silva had remained relatively quiet until a UFC 148 media call in June of 2012, in which he stated through a translator: "Chael Sonnen's going to get his ass kicked like he's never gotten his ass kicked before. What I'm going to do inside the Octagon is something that's going to change the image of the sport. This is going to be violent and I am sorry. I'm going to make sure that every one of his teeth are broken, that his arms are broken and his legs are broken. He's not going to be able to walk out of the Octagon by himself. I can guarantee that. He will need a plastic surgeon afterwards. And I know that he’s listening, so the game’s over. No more shit talking. It’s on now." This caught many by surprise, as these remarks were out of character.

Other fights and card changes

Urijah Faber was expected to challenge Dominick Cruz for the UFC Bantamweight Championship in the co-main event, following their stint as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Live, but a torn ACL forced Cruz off the card.

Faber was then expected to face replacement Renan Barão for the Interim Bantamweight Championship, but that fight was moved to the main event of UFC 149 in Calgary. Barão was originally scheduled to fight Ivan Menjivar on the UFC 148 preliminary card. Menjivar's new opponent is Mike Easton.

Also on the card is a long-awaited rubber match between Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin. Each fighter has defeated the other in their two prior meetings; Ortiz won the first bout at UFC 59 and Griffin won the rematch at UFC 106. Both fights ended in a split decision. After 15 years in the UFC, Ortiz plans to retire after this fight. He is 1-6-1 in his last eight fights, his last win over Ryan Bader at UFC 132 in July 2011. Before that, Ortiz hadn't won since 2006.

Rich Franklin was expected to return to middleweight in a bout against Cung Le. However, due to an injury to UFC 147 headliner Vitor Belfort, Franklin was pulled from the bout with Le to replace Belfort in rematch against Wanderlei Silva. Le is now scheduled to face veteran Patrick Côté. This will be Le's second fight in the UFC, after losing his first to Wanderlei Silva by TKO at UFC 139. Côté is returning to the UFC after last losing a decision to Tom Lawlor at UFC 121 in October 2010. He is on a four fight win streak, with no losses since leaving the UFC.

International fight week

In conjunction with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the UFC is planning five days of festivities leading up to UFC 148, for what they call International Fight Week. This will be the first International Fight Week, which is expected to be an annual July occurence, coinciding with a Las Vegas UFC event. UFC President Dana White stated, "The first annual International Fight Week will be awesome, the fans are going to have a fight week experience better than anything they've ever had before, and each year we are going to build this thing to the point where every fan on the planet knows they have to come to Vegas for this July fight week at least once in their lives." The UFC Fan Expo (two days of fighter meet-and-greets, training seminars, autograph sessions, and special events) is also planned for July 6 and 7.

Event

The event will consist of eleven mixed martial arts bouts sanctioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and contested under the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. All bouts will consist of three five-minute rounds except for the main-event championship match between Silva and Sonnen, which will be five five-minute rounds. Six bouts will be televised live on pay-per-view. Four preliminary bouts will be televised live on FX, and one will be streamed live on Facebook.

Official fight card

Main Card on Pay-Per-View
Weight Class	Red Corner	vs.	Blue Corner	Method	Round	Time	Notes
Middleweight	Anderson Silva (c)	vs	Chael Sonnen
Light Heavyweight	Forrest Griffin	vs	Tito Ortiz
Middleweight	Cung Le	vs	Patrick Côté
Welterweight	Dong Hyun Kim	vs	Demian Maia
Featherweight	Chad Mendes	vs	Cody McKenzie
Bantamweight	Ivan Menjivar	vs	Mike Easton
Preliminary Card on FX
Lightweight	Gleison Tibau	vs	Khabib Nurmagomedov
Lightweight	Melvin Guillard	vs	Fabrício Camões
Middleweight	Constantinos Philippou	vs	Riki Fukuda
Lightweight	John Alessio	vs	Shane Roller
Preliminary Card on Facebook
Lightweight	Rafaello Oliveira	vs	Yoislandy Izquierdo

^Note 1 For the UFC Middleweight Championship.

See also

• List of UFC events

References

1. "UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II". ufc.com. May 18, 2012.
2. "Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II moved to Las Vegas for UFC 148". Las Vegas Sun. April 24, 2012.
3. "Sherdog Middleweight Rankings". sherdog.com. May 18, 2012.
4. "MMA Power Rankings". ESPN. Retrieved May 19, 2012.
5. "Rankings: Silva vs. GSP". http://sports.yahoo.com/ufc. Yahoo! Sports. February 17, 2011. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
6. "Sherdog.com's Pound-for-Pound Top 10". Sherdog.com. August 30, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2012.
7. ^ "Chael Sonnen raises Anderson Silva's ire ahead of UFC 148, and that's exactly the way he planned it". Yahoo! Sports. June 28, 2012.
8. "World MMA Awards 2010 Winners". mmafighting.com. May 18, 2012.
9. "Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen Rematch Set for Super Bowl Weekend?". mmaintel.com. May 18, 2012.
10. "MMA trash-talking: Death threats are out but breaking teeth and limbs appears OK". Winnipeg Free Press. June 28, 2012.
11. "Dominick Cruz out of UFC 148 with torn ACL". Los Angeles Times. May 8, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
12. "Urijah Faber's New Opponent at UFC 146 is…". sports.yahoo.com. May 18, 2012.
13. "Jose Aldo injured, Urijah Faber vs Renan Barao fight moved to UFC 149 main event". mmamania.com. June 9, 2012.
14. "Tito Ortiz: Griffin fight set for July 7". USA Today. March 20, 2012.
15. "Tito Ortiz Sticking to Retirement Plans: Fan Reaction". Yahoo! Sports. April 12, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
16. "Company man Franklin answers call again". ESPN. June 1, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
17. "Cung Le vs. Patrick Cote targeted for UFC 148". mmajunkie.com. May 30, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
18. "Patrick Cote returns to UFC in a big way". London Free Press. June 2, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
19. "International Fight Week adds to UFC 148 hoopla". Las Vegas Review-Journal. June 19, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
20. "UFC Fan Expo 2012 slated for July 6–7 in Las Vegas". mmamania.com. January 26, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
21. "UFC 148 Live on Pay-Per-View Silva vs. Sonnen II". Ultimate Fighting Championship. June 27, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2012.

External links

• Official UFC past events page
• UFC event results at Sherdog.com

• Ultimate Fighting Championship events
• 2012 in mixed martial arts