Report: Takenori Sato meets Erick Silva at UFC Fight Night 36 in Brazil

With welterweight Nate Loughran out with an injury, Erick Silva appears to have a new opponent next month in Brazil.

After Loughran (11-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) had to drop out of his long-time-coming return to the UFC with an injury, the UFC has signed Takenori Sato (17-8-7 MMA, 0-0 UFC) to meet Silva (15-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 36, according to a report from Combate.

Featuring a middleweight main event between Lyoto Machida and Gegard Mousasi, UFC Fight Night 36 takes place Feb. 15 at Arena Jaragua in Jaragua do Sul, Santa Caarina, Brazil. The night’s main card airs on FOX Sports 1, and prelims stream on UFC Fight Pass.

Sato has not lost a fight in nearly four years. Since his most recent setback, he has gone 8-0-2 with four submissions. Included among his recent streak is the welterweight King of Pancrase crown. The 28-year-old Japanese fighter has nine of his 17 career wins by stoppage.

Silva is hoping to rebound from a knockout loss to Dong Hyun Kim in October. His UFC career has been up and down with wins over Luis Ramos, Charlie Brenneman and Jason High, but losses to Kim, Jon Fitch and Carlos Prater.

Loughran was looking to return to the UFC for the first time since asking for his release in 2008. He opened his professional career with nine straight wins, eight of which came by submission, including a UFC debut win over Johnny Rees. However, he suffered an injury against Tim Credeur in a December 2008 contest and quit on the stool before the start of the third round and later asked for his release from the promotion to focus on life outside of the cage. He didn’t fight again until March 2012, when he earned a split-decision win over Jamie Jara on the California regional scene.

The current UFC Fight Night 36 lineup includes:

• Lyoto Machida vs. Gegard Mousasi
• Francis Carmont vs. Ronaldo Souza
• Cristiano Marcello vs. Joe Proctor
• Viscardi Andrade vs. Nicholas Musoke
• Jesse Ronson vs. Francisco Trinaldo
• Andy Ogle vs. Charles Oliveira
• Thiago Tavares vs. Zubair Tuhugov
• Rodrigo Damm vs. Ivan Jorge
• Takenori Sato vs. Erick Silva*
• Yuri Alcantara vs. Wilson Reis
• Felipe Arantes vs. Maximo Blanco

* Not officially announced

For more on UFC Fight Night 36, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Erick Silva)