Chael Sonnen in photo by Josh Hedges
After pleading guilty to money laundering, Chael Sonnen ended up getting dropped from the card for UFC 128, to take place March 19 in New Jersey. His substitute against Yoshihiro Akiyama will be Nate Marquardt, who is coming off a loss to another Japanese fighter, Yushin Okami. Check out who else is on the card:
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Rashad Evans
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Nate Marquardt
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Brendan Schaub
Urijah Faber vs. Eddie Wineland
Jim Miller vs. Kamal Shalorus
Ricardo Almeida vs. Mike Pyle
Kurt Pellegrino vs. Gleison Tibau
Edson Barboza vs. Anthony Njokuani
Luiz Cane vs. Karlos Vemola
After suffering his third loss in the octagon in a row, against Thiago Silva (UFC 125), Brandon Vera is out of the UFC’s plans. Vera was once seen as one of the most promising athletes in the promotion, after rattling off four-straight wins following his 2005 debut.
Another to drop from the roster is lightweight Antonio McKee, who had a great run in the IFL and notched as many as fifteen fights without losing in MMA. But McKee only had one fight in the UFC, losing a split decision to Jacob Volkmann at UFC 125.
And another who’s out is Marcus Davis. After winning fifteen fights in the organization, six straight, four “fight of the night” bonuses and making it within a hair of a title fight, Davis bid farewell to the event after losing to Jeremy Stephens at UFC 125, but he vows to continue fighting.
With the arrival of the new bevvy of WEC fighters, it is likely firings will become all the more common, especially in the lower weight divisions. The way to stay is just win, win, win.