The UFC made their first appearance at the Pepsi Center last September, with Jon Jones defeating Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in the Light Heavyweight Championship main event at UFC 135.
Cane is making his middleweight debut after losing his third fight in four bouts at UFC 134 last August. That loss came against a debuting Stanislav Nedkov, and dropped him to 4-4 overall in his UFC run.
Okami hopes to bounce back from consecutive losses, knockout stoppages against Anderson Silva last August and Tim Boetsch in February. In the most recent fight, he was well ahead on the scorecards into the third before getting stopped by a vicious series of strikes by Boetsch on the cage.
Hallman and Tavares both enter off of victories, with Hallman stopping John Makdessi in December at UFC 140, and Tavares winning two straight over Spencer Fisher and Sam Stout.
Penick's Analysis: These are three solid fights for the card already. Cane at middleweight is an intriguing proposition, and he'll have a very tough fight in Okami to try to make a statement. Hallman-Tavares is a solid bout for each in off of their wins, and the Lightweight Title rematch should be a fantastic main event. All in all, a very good start to filling up this card.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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