UFC 144: Takanori Gomi vs. George Sotiropoulos Added To Japan*Card

[Brent Smith]

http://mobile.bloodyelbow.com/2011/1...oulos#comments

As expected, Takanori Gomi will compete at Japan's UFC 144 and he now has an opponent as the organization announced late Sunday night that George Sotiropoulos
will battle the former PRIDE champion on Saturday, February 26th in Saitama.
The 33-year-old Gomi (32-8-0-1) made his UFC debut in March 2010 and was submitted by*Kenny Florian in the third round. After knocking out Tyson Griffin in 64 seconds later that year, Gomi lost consecutive fights by submission to Clay Guida and Nate Diaz. Gomi is a former PRIDE Lightweight champion and Shooto Welterweight Champion.

A UFC fighter since December 2007, Sotiropoulos (14-4) came within striking distance of a lightweight title shot with an eight-fight winning streak. However, a unanimous decision loss to Dennis Siver
in February and a 59-second knockout loss to Rafael dos Anjos in July put the 34-year-old back in the middle of the pack.

UFC 144 (aka UFC Japan) is headlined by Lightweight Champion
Frankie Edgar vs. Ben Henderson
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Ryan Bader
Mark Hunt vs. Cheick Kongo
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Jake Shields
Joe Lauzon vs. Anthony Pettis

[Dylan Ehrnreiter]

Love it. I hope George finishes by gogoplata.

[Mack Elwood]

Hell yeah! G-Sot is taking this one.

[Emir Mehovic]

George by submission. Lets do thissss. 10th planet ftw.

[John Campbell]

George wins no doubt.

[Compella]

Great fight for George, just has to keep his chin tucked and get busy on the ground. Very big gap in experience far as the grappling goes, and Nick already proved the go-go plata effective I usually like rooting for Gomi cuz he swings for the fences and fights with a ton of heart, but George is my boy, this will get him back on track for that title shot.

[James Fazzolari]

George by sub.

[Freddy Chavez]

i'd like to see george win by choke or arm lock or gomi win by ko.

[Jacob Allen]

A year ago, I'd say it's an easy win for George. After his lack of wrestling and chin have been exposed in his last 2 fights, Gomi actually has a shot here.

[Brent Smith]

A year ago, I'd say it's an easy win for George. After his lack of wrestling and chin have been exposed in his last 2 fights, Gomi actually has a shot here.

Kinda where I'm at too