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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Nate Marquardt and Rousimar Palhares will be delayed from meeting for a second time, as the UFC has moved their bout, scheduled for UFC 118 in Boston, to the main event slot of the September 15 Fight Night 22 event.
The move was reported by MMAJunkie.com, and comes due to the eye injury suffered by Alan Belcher that pulled him from his bout with Demian Maia, which was originally set to headline the event.
Marquardt told MMATorch last month that he was originally supposed to face Palhares at UFC 116, and he was then rescheduled against Alessio Sakara for the event. Of course, that fight fell through when Sakara's father died, and Marquardt was again rescheduled to face Palhares at UFC 118.
Now, he'll return a few weeks later for the first time since losing to Chael Sonnen in February. That loss derailed his attempts to get a rematch with UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, and he'll have to get past a very tough opponent in Palhares to get back on track in the division.
Palhares is out to erase the stigma of his actions in his last fight. At UFC 111, he locked on a tight kneebar on Tomasz Drwal and held onto the hold for a few seconds after the referee halted the fight. It damaged Drwal's knee and led to a 90 day suspension for Palhares.
Fight Night 22 takes place from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, and will be the lead in to the 12th season of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV.
Penick's Analysis: This was a good fight to move, as it works as a Fight Night headliner. It was an excellent fight for the pay-per-view card, so it hurts 118 somewhat, but with the top three fights on that card being highly interesting fights, losing this one isn't terrible. The event won't suffer from it, anyway. This should still be a very good fight, and it's only delayed by a couple of weeks, so it's not that bad, either. This was the UFC making the best out of an unfortunate situation with Belcher's injury so close to the main event fight.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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