UFC Confirms Two Light Heavyweight Fights

Over the course of this past UFC 93 weekend in Dublin, Ireland, the UFC officially announced two major upcoming fights in the light heavyweight division.

Leaving little time to enjoy his victory over Mark Coleman, Dana White announced that Mauricio Rua will face off against former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell at UFC 97 this April. Liddell and Rua were originally slated to fight back at UFC 85 last year, but the first of two knee injuries forced Rua to withdraw from the fight. Liddell last fought at UFC 88 where he lost via KO to current light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans.

Also announced during the UFC 93 Pay-Per-View broadcast, was a light heavyweight matchup between Quinton Jackson and Keith Jardine. The two will square off at UFC 96 this March in what is a rather peculiar fight matchup. After his recent victory over Wanderlei Silva, many expected Jackson to either rematch with Forrest Griffin or be the first opponent to challenge for Rashad Evan’s belt.

Matching Jackson and Jardine doesn’t make much sense to me and is a rather boring matchup. If Jackson does win, you would have to think he will be the No. 1 contender for Evan’s belt. If Jardine wins, we cannot assume the same however, as both Jardine and Evans train together at Greg Jackson’s gym and have stated on several occasions that they would not fight each other.

UFC 97 is currently scheduled for April 18 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and is expected to be headlined by a middleweight title fight between current champion Anderson Silva and challenger Thales Leites. UFC 96 is currently scheduled for March 7 in Columbus, Ohio.