Alessio Sakara vs. Tom Watson joins UFC Fight Night 30 lineup
- from http://www.mmajunkie.com/ on Aug 21, 2013
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UFC officials announced the middleweight bout overnight.
UFC Fight Night 30, which features a Michael Bisping vs. Mark Munoz headliner, takes place Oct. 26 at Manchester Arena in England. The night’s main card airs on FOX Sports 2 following prelims on Facebook.
Sakara vs. Watson will be part of the prelims.
In early 2010, Sakara was riding high with a three-fight winning streak that earned him a shot at the division’s upper echelon. However, since then, he’s suffered three consecutive losses, to Chris Weidman, Brian Stann and then Patrick Cote. Although tagged with a disqualification loss to Cote, the Italian striker was in clear control of the bout and only suffered the defeat due to elbows that were deemed illegal and to the back of the head.
Sakara has been on the sidelines since that November fight due to kidney issues.
Watson, who fights in his home country for the third time in four UFC fights, was on an 11-1 run before signing with the UFC in 2012. It’s been a mixed bag since then for the former UCMMA and BAMMA champion. He suffered a split-decision defeat to Brad Tavares in his promotional debut (though every major media outlet scored it 30-27 for Tavares) before rebounding with a TKO win over Stanislav Nedkov that earned him both “Fight of the Night” and “KO of the Night” bonuses that totaled $100,000. However, in his most recent bout, he looked flat in a lopsided unanimous-decision loss to grappler Thales Leites earlier this month at uFC 163.
The latest UFC Fight Night 30 card now includes:
- Michael Bisping vs. Mark Munoz
- Melvin Guillard vs. Ross Pearson
- Phil Harris vs. John Lineker
- Ryan Jimmo vs. Jimi Manuwa
- Jimy Hettes vs. Mike Wilkinson
- Anthony Njokuani vs. Paul Taylor
- Alessio Sakara vs. Tom Watson
For more on UFC Fight Night 30, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Alessio Sakara)
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