A middleweight bout between Nate Marquardt (29-9-2 MMA, 8-3 UFC) and Rousimar Palhares (11-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) initially scheduled for UFC 118 has been moved to UFC Fight Night 22 and now serves as the night's main event.
Sources close to the event today confirmed the change with MMAjunkie.com.
The UFC Fight Night 22 headliner slot opened when Alan Belcher was forced out of his bout with Demian Maia due to detached retina that required surgery.
UFC 118 takes place Aug. 28 in Boston, so UFC Fight Night 22 – which takes place Sept. 15 – will give the Marquardt and Palhares an extra two-and-a-half weeks of camp time. The Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, hosts to their Spike TV-televised event.
It's not clear if Maia will remain on the UFC Fight Night 22 card. It's also not known how UFC officials will fill UFC 118's vacant main-card slot now that Marquardt vs. Palhares has been removed from the pay-per-view card.
Marquardt looks to rebound from a unanimous-decision loss to now-top contender Chael Sonnen, which came at UFC 109 in February. The loss, which propelled Sonnen to his title shot, snapped Marquardt's three-fight win streak (against Martin Kampmann, Wilso Gouveia and Maia – all of which came via knockout) and delivered a setback in his quest for a second title shot against current champ Anderson Silva.
The Team Jackson fighter now meets Palhares, who looks for his fourth consecutive victory in the UFC. During his recent streak, the Brazilian Top Team fighter earned a decision victory over Jeremy Horn and heel-hook submission wins over Lucio Linhares and Tomasz Drwal. He's now won nine of his past 10 fights, and eight of the victories have come via stoppage.
Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/20141/nate-ma ... t-slot.mma