UFC NEWS – George Sotiropoulos Returns Against Takanori Gomi In Japan
A lightweight matchup has been added to the UFC 144 event set to take place in Japan between top lightweight, George Sotiropoulos and Japanese MMA legend Takanori Gomi.
UFC officials announced the addition to the card during today’s pre-fight press conference at the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo Ballroom in Tokyo, Japan.
“UFC 144: Japan” is set to go down on February 26 live from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. As of current date, the event is expected to be headlined by a lightweight title fight between champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Benson Henderson. The event marks the UFC’s first ever return to Japan since UFC 29 in 2000.
After starting his UFC career on an impressive 7-0 run, the Australian born George Sotiropoulos has dropped his last two fights. First was the big upset at the hands of Dennis Siver at UFC 127 than he took his second loss at the hands of Rafael dos Anjos via first round knockout at UFC 132. These two losses halted all talks of title contention for the fighter who at the time of his first defeat was thought to be one fight away from a title shot.
Gomi finds himself in what is believed to be a do or die situation. The Japanese legend made his UFC debut in March of 2010 and to date has only been able to notch one victory in his four UFC contests. After an unsuccessful debut against Kenny Florian, “The Fireball Kid” bounced back from defeat by knocking out Tyson Griffin at UFC On Versus 1. Not one to take an easy road, his next two fights where losses against Clay Guida and Nate Diaz respectively.
The bout is expected to be featured on the preliminary portion of the card.
The latest UFC 144 lineup looks as follows:
MAIN CARD: (Pay-per-view)
• Champ Frankie Edgar vs. Ben Henderson (for lightweight title)
• Ryan Bader vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
• Cheick Kongo vs. Mark Hunt
• Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Jake Shields
• Joe Lauzon vs. Anthony Pettis
PRELIMINARY CARD:
• Tim Boetsch vs. Yushin Okami
• Steve Cantwell vs. Riki Fukuda
• Vaughan Lee vs. Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto
• Chris Cariaso vs. Takeya Mizugaki
• Takanori Gomi vs. George Sotiropoulos
• Hatsu Hioki and Bart Palaszewski
• Leonard Garcia vs. Tiequan Zhang
Click here for the latest UFC 144 Japan coverage provided by BJPENN.COM
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Damn! Another bad match-up for Gomi. This guy needs an opponent who likes to bang.
Iono, of course a lot of us can tell that Gomi’s downfall is him being susceptible to submissions, and for him to face Sotiropoulos, a submission specialist, doesn’t look like his possibilities are good! But hey, if Gomi can work on his takedown & submission defense, and hold him off long enough and catch him with a good one, he just might have a slim chance!
Nate Diaz doesn’t like to “bang”?
George wins this one very easily.
Bendo by decision, rampage by knockout,kongo by ko, shields by decision, joe by sub,george by 1st round sub…. watch
Lex, have you ever watched MMA? Rampage can’t knock anyone out anymore. His only KO’s in the UFC have been two glassjaws (Liddel and Wandy, no disrespect) and one C-level fighter (Marvin Eastman). He does NOT have KO power. If he wins, it will be a boring jabfest. And Mark Hunt will never get KO’ed.
Whatever man! Just because he hasn’t KO’ed someone in a while doesn’t mean he doesn’t have KO power. But this late in his career the fight game has changed. He is most likely going to TKO (almost TKO’ed Rashad last) or win by decision (most of his victories recently) unless he gets caught with those heavy hands but even then his chin is light-years ahead of most MMA fighters. He won’t be submitted either.
A Leo, way to make a dumb statement
Just like Cain was gonna knock out Junior and Donald would get his ass kick by Cole Miller.
I think by now we all know better than to take predictions from ur fagget ass Forty5. Go get some fresh air nigga u been spammin this site daily for years, ur bum ass should be payin rent.
Lmaoo
George! He’s the man! I was wondering what happened to him. He’s a great fighter with the weirdest looking body… Lets get George Soteropolis vs Clay Guida after he wins this fight.
Hopefully Sotts has worked on his wrestling. He can’t just rely on his Jiujitsu for takedowns – Siver showed that didn’t work.
is it me or everyone is counting out Gomi in this fight. Sotiropoulos lacks takedowns and Gomi is a good wrestler himself. And Gomi has decent boxing as does Sotiropoulos. Gomi, however, has devastating knockout power in his hands. Really hope he starts fighting a smart fight and wins for Japan. He really needs this win bad.
Nate Diaz murdered him… It was like fight was fixed it was such a bad beating but since I have seen several Soteropolis fights and one Gomi fight I might be biased.
Sots by flying armbar