UFC Fight Night 22: Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares

Props to Joe Silva once again.

Seems with Alan Belcher out of the picture and Demian Maia out of the picture, the reasonable thing to do was move Nate Marquardt's middleweight bout with Rousimar Palhares from UFC 118 in Boston to UFC Fight Night 22 in Austin, Texas.

The news was originally reported by MMAjunkie.com.

For the first time since Ultimate Fight Night 8 in 2007, "The Great" will participate on a Fight Night card, though his opponent, Palhares, will be no easy opponent.

While Marquardt, a well-rounded Greg Jackson warrior, will carry the edge on the feet for certain, the BJJ expert who mentored Shane Carwin in the discipline will have to be wary of Palhares, who is equally dangerous on the ground.

Palhares' last fight, a fight with Tomaz Drwal at UFC 111, ended in a deadly way with a heel hook 45 seconds into the fight. Palhares was given a 90 day suspension for continuing to crank the heel hook even after Drwal tapped and the referee had stopped the fight.

In a 13-fight pro career, Palhares claimed Drwal as his eighth opponent to succumb to submission, while outscoring two and possessing a TKO win due to injury in his early career days.

The Brazilian submission artist has yet to tap out or be knocked out in his professional career, though he has been outscored twice.

Marquardt has submitted 15 opponents in a 40-fight win streak, knocking out eight of those 40, and dropping a decision to current UFC Middleweight Title challenger Chael Sonnen, who faces the enigmatic UFC Middleweight monarch and arguable pound-for-pound king of MMA Anderson Silva this Saturday.

Marquardt is no stranger to the judges' scorecards, as the loss to Sonnen at UFC 109 was the fifth loss by decision in his career. Of the 13 times he has seen the judges' scores, Nate has seen the better end of their decision eight times.

Those of you in the ATX area, those of you MMA diehards all around the Lone Star State and even those all around the US and even the world, don't look past Marquardt vs. Palhares in Austin this September at UFC Fight Night.

This battle of BJJ specialists could very well have all the makings of an explosive five-star epic.

Source: MMAJunkie.com

**UPDATE (8/4/10): In addition to Marquardt-Palhares being moved from UFC 118 to this card in Austin, MMA Junkie officially confirms that Demian Maia is no longer on the UFN 22 card. You can read the full story here.