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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief Alessio Sakara has come up with a shoulder injury and will not be able to compete against Jake Rosholt at UFC's Fight Night 17 on February 7th, according to MMAJunkie.com. In his place to take on the three time NCAA Division I wrestling champion will be Dan Miller.
Miller is 2-0 in the UFC, with victories over Rob Kimmons and Matt Horwich in the fall of 2008. He's 10-1 overall, and has won eight of his last nine fights with one no decision in there.
The aforementioned Rosholt will be making his UFC debut after one fight in the WEC in which he picked up a second round tko victory over Nissen Osterneck. The fight will take place on the unaired preliminary card and the UFC has revealed the main televised card as well. Four bouts are set to air live on Spike TV, and the night is headlined by a lightweight bout between Hermes Franca and Dan Lauzon. One bout that is expected that has not been confirmed by the UFC yet is Matt Riddle vs. Steve Bruno. The full card is below:
MAIN CARD
Hermes Franca vs. Joe Lauzon
Denis Stojnic vs. Cain Velasquez
Mac Danzig vs. Josh Neer
Nick Catone vs. Amir Sadollah
PRELIMINARY CARD
Rob Emerson vs. Kurt Pellegrino
Jake Rosholt vs. Dan Miller
Matt Grice vs. George Sotiropoulos
Rich Clementi vs. Gleison Tibau
Luigi Fioravanti vs. Anthony Johnson
Penick's Analysis: There are some really good looking fights on paper for this free show. I really want to see what Sadollah's got against someone that wasn't on his cast for the Ultimate Fighter, and his continued development is going to be a story to watch if he can fight multiple times in '09. Mac Danzig and Josh Neer should be a good bout, and we'll get to see if Neer is able to deal with his legal distractions during training and during the fight itself. Franca and Lauzon isn't the greatest Fight Night headliner, but it should still be an exciting lightweight battle. I'm very interested to see if Rosholt's been able to improve his stand up game from the fight with Osterneck, as he was very sloppy in that department and took a ton of punishment before using his wrestling to take the fight over. With that background he's another fighter that, once he gets the other pieces in place, could be a definite force in MMA. The Velasquez vs. Stojnic should also be a decent heavyweight battle, and Velasquez will have another chance to continue his winning ways in the UFC's heavyweight division. All-in-all, this should be a pretty good night of free fights on Spike TV, and it's needed with the three pay-per-view events coming up in the next four weeks.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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