Sherdog.com reports that Yushin Okami may be next in line to fight Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight championship. Silva has been on a rampage since joining the UFC in 2006, cleaning out the middleweight division with impressive wins over several top fighters. Yushin Okami is the last man to score a win Silva, earning a disqualification victory at the “Rumble on the Rock” tournament in January ’06. During that fight, Silva was disqualified after kicking Okami in the face while Okami’s knees were on the ground. Okami defeated former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner via knock out at last weekend’s UFC 82 event in Ohio.
UFC.com has announced that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has suffered a ruptured ACL his left knee and his upcoming fight with Chuck Liddell is cancelled. The fight was scheduled to be the main event of UFC 85 (6/7) from London, England. Shogun first injured the knee in his fight with Forrest Griffin from September 2007 and required surgery. At UFC 82 this past weekend, the company announced Chuck Liddell would be fighting on the June 7th card but never mentioned Shogun. Now we know why. UFC says Shogun’s replacement will be announced shortly.
Keith Jardine vs. W. Silva and, Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida are official for UFC 84 on 5/24. This will likely be Ortiz’ last fight with UFC.
