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UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares, also known as UFC Fight Night 22 (and formerly known as UFC Fight Night: Maia vs. Belcher) is an upcoming mixed martial arts event to be held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on September 15, 2010 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.[1] The event will precede the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck.


Official fight card

Main card

* Middleweight bout: United States Nate Marquardt vs. Brazil Rousimar Palhares
* Lightweight bout: Mexico Efrain Escudero vs. Brazil Charles Oliveira
* Lightweight bout: United States Jim Miller vs. Brazil Gleison Tibau
* Lightweight bout: England Ross Pearson vs. United States Cole Miller

Preliminary card

* Light Heavyweight bout: United States Jared Hamman vs. United States Kyle Kingsbury
* Middleweight bout: Poland Tomasz Drwal vs. United States Dave Branch
* Middleweight bout: United States Rich Attonito vs. Brazil Rafael Natal
* Welterweight bout: United States Anthony Waldburger vs. United States David Mitchell
* Welterweight bout: United States Brian Foster vs. United States Forrest Petz

Announced matchups

The following fights have been reported as finalized by sources, but have yet to be officially announced at ufc.com.

* Lightweight bout: The Bahamas Yves Edwards vs. United States John Gunderson


Background

The card for the event has been plagued with numerous injuries, with multiple potential fights being called off as a result.

Jim Miller and Gleison Tibau were reported to be fighting at UFC Live: Jones vs. Matyushenko, but the fight was moved to this card.

On August 1, 2010, Alan Belcher withdrew from the main event fight with Demian Maia after undergoing emergency eye surgery. Belcher stated on his Twitter account that he started to lose the vision in his right eye whilst in Brazil.

On August 2, 2010, the bout between Nate Marquardt and Rousimar Palhares, which was originally scheduled for UFC 118 was moved to this event to serve as the new main event. As a result of this, Maia was moved to UFC 118 where he defeated Mario Miranda by Unanimous Decision in the same slot as the Marquardt vs. Palhares bout would have been.

On August 9, 2010, it was announced Tomasz Drwal will be fighting Dave Branch because both of their original opponents had to withdraw from their bouts due to injury. Nick Catone, who was scheduled to fight Drwal, needed shoulder and back surgery. Aaron Simpson, who was scheduled to fight Branch, had a staph infection in his elbow.

On August 18, 2010, Mac Danzig was pulled from his bout with Matt Wiman with an unknown injury. Danzig was expected to face Wiman in a rematch of their controversial bout at UFC 115. Efrain Escudero was then moved up from the undercard to face Wiman in the co main event but Wiman broke his arm while training. Escudero will now face Charles Oliveira still in the co main event.

John Gunderson, Escuderos original opponent, will still be on the card facing returning UFC veteran Yves Edwards