Pictured: Brian Melancon | Photo: Paul Erickson
Four Texas MMA Reps Featured At UFC 162 This July; Kennedy, Oliviera, Craig, and Melancon All Set For Pivotal Bouts In Las Vegas
The event features the return of UFC middleweight champ and P4P great Anderson Silva as he takes on reigning top contender Chris Weidman. The main card also features some other highly-notable matchups as well. This includes former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar making the drop down to featherweight for the second time to face Brazilian, and sometimes Houstonian, Charles Oliviera (Gold Team) and 7x BJJ world champ Roger Gracie making his UFC debut against fellow Strikeforce alum and Austin, TX resident Tim Kennedy (Austin Muay Thai). Mark Muñoz takes on Tim Boetsch in another pivotal middleweight division matchup while streaking Cub Swanson takes on Dennis Siver in a featherweight bout to complete the main card.
With all those matchups on the main card UFC 162 can easily be distinguished as one of the stronger UFC pay-per-view cards of the year. However there are other reasons to tune into this event as well and they involve the presence of two more of the Lone Star State’s finest on the undercard bout portion of the evening, scheduled to air on Facebook and FX.
At middleweight, Houstonian Andrew Craig (Team Tooke) will look to bounce back from the first loss of his career, a decision loss incurred this past January against Ronny Markes, when he takes on longtime UFC vet and TUF 1 “bad boy” Chris Leben. At 8-1, Andrew has already picked ip some wins over very tough opponents this early in his career (e.g. Rafael Natal, Kyle Noke, Bubba Bush) but beating the 22-9 “Crippler” would certainly be the bigger feather in his cap if he can pull it off.
Meanwhile also from Houston, Paradigm’s Brian Melancon fulfills his lifelong dream of making it into the octagon when he makes his UFC debut against “Polish Pistola” Seth Baczynski. A physical therapist by day, the hard-hitting Brian was well on his way to quitting the sport for good to pursue his clinical career following his 1-1 run in Strikeforce in 2011 but the call finally came and he’s now prepared to make one big push in the major leagues.
UFC 162: Silva vs Weidman takes place on July 6, 2013 with the action beginning with the first bouts on Facebook at 5:30PM CST followed up by the FX card at 7PM and the PPV kicking off promptly at 9PM.
Make sure to tune in and watch all of our TXMMA reps in action.
UFC 162 – Main Card (PPV)
185 lbs.: Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman <Title>
145 lbs.: Frankie Edgar vs. Charles Oliveira
185 lbs.: Tim Kennedy vs. Roger Gracie
185 lbs.: Mark Muñoz vs. Tim Boetsch
185 lbs.: Cub Swanson vs. Dennis Siver
UFC 162 – Preliminary card (FX)
185 lbs.: Chris Leben vs. Andrew Craig
155 lbs.: Norman Parke vs. Kazuki Tokudome
265 lbs.: Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Dave Herman
155 lbs.: Edson Barboza vs. Rafaello Oliveira
UFC 162 – Preliminary card (Facebook)
170 lbs.: Seth Baczynski vs. Brian Melancon
170 lbs.: Mike Pierce vs. David Mitchell