September 26. 2011 – On the heels of Jon Jones’ spectacular performance this past Saturday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is back with their next event as they bring the octagon to Washington D.C. for UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson.
Featuring a bantamweight title defense by the unorthodox champion Dominick Cruz against Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, the event is set to air LIVE on the Versus network beginning at 8PM this Saturday night to usher in an October that also brings UFC 136 and the UFC Expo to Houston, TX the following weekend.
Before the UFC brings itself to Texas though, some of the state’s fighters will bring themselves to the UFC in D.C. as this UFC LIVE event also features three Texas fighters in the form of Yves Edwards, Shane Roller, and Joseph Sandoval.
A fourth was also set to be on this card in the form of San Antonio’s Aaron Rosa before he was bumped off due to an injury to his opponent, Brazilian Fabio Maldonado.
As for the three who are fighting, each of them have their own story on the way to the UFC and this event in particular.
A native of the Bahamas before moving to Houston in his teen years, “Thug-jitsu master” Yves Edwards (40-17-1) has already had a long and storied MMA career prior to this event. Fighting since the early days of MMA, Yves has already been up and down the ladder from regional fighter (e.g. Renegades Extreme Fighting) to UFC Title Contender and every scenario in between. Most recently, Yves won three in a row in a career resurgence of sorts before suffering a setback in the form of a brutal KO at the hands of Sam Stout at UFC 131 this past June. He’ll be looking to rebound from that loss against Brazilian Rafaello Oliviera (14-4) this Saturday night.
Also representing Texas this Saturday is former NCAA wrestler Shane Roller (10-4). A member of Team Takedown, Shane has prepared hard in Arlington for his bout against TJ Grant (16-5). With this bout marking his third in the UFC after going 6-2 in the WEC, Shane is now looking to turn things around after his last loss to another longtime Texan in Melvin Guillard at UFC 132.
The third of the Texas trio fighting at UFC LIVE is undefeated West Texas native Joseph Sandoval (6-0). Fighting out of Bighead MMA in Lubbock, TX, Joseph will be making his UFC debut after a very succesful career fighting primarily for Shark Fights. The 25 year old put an exclamation point on his tenture for that promotion with a submission off Randy Hinds this past June He’ll now look to begin the next chapter of his career against fellow UFC first-timer Walel “The Gazelle” Watson (8-2).
As has been customary as of late, these three undercard bouts are expected to air on Facebook prior the broadcast-televised portion of this show on the Versus Network beginning at 8PM this Saturday. Stay tuned here to TXMMA.com as we’ll have more this card as the week progresses.
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