Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen Set For UFC 104

The last man to have beaten Anderson Silva, Yushin Okami will face off against former WEC middleweight challenger Chael Sonnen. The showdown is scheduled to be part of UFC 104 which is to take place October 24th from the Staples Arena in Los Angeles, California.

Okami has been out of action since defeating Dean Lister at UFC 92 back in December. He has had some knee problems that caused him to back out of a fight with Dan Miller at UFC 98. Incidentally Sonnen stepped in for Okami and dominated Miller for three full rounds.

Okami holds a disqualification victory over Silva when the two met during a Rumble on the Rock 175lb tournament back in January of 2006. Okami had taken Silva down and while in Silva’s guard he was struck by an illegal kick. He was given time to recover but he could not thus earning the tainted victory. His ground and pound style will be matched up against Sonnen’s stellar wrestling skills.

UFC 104 will mark the first defense for the newly crowned UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida as he faces former consensus #1 light heavyweight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. The undefeated Machida has yet to be tested and has given anyone who fights him fits with his unorthodox yet dangerous style. He began his martial arts career training in Machida Karate. Rua has superb all around skills that he hasn’t shown in his three fights inside the octagon. He has lost to Forrest Griffin and defeated two of the UFC’s oldest fighters in Mark Coleman and Chuck Liddell.

In a bout that could determine the number one contender to Brock Lesnar’s UFC heavyweight championship, two undefeated wrestlers face off. Shane Carwin takes on Cain Velasquez to see who will be Brock’s next victim. Carwin is coming off his most impressive victory to date as he knocked out former heavyweight challenger Gabriel Gonzaga in just 1:09. With superior strength and great wrestling Carwin will be the stiffest test thus far for Velasquez. The Mexican born wrestler recently defeated Cheick Kongo which coincidentally was his toughest fight in his young career.

The rest of the card is taking shape nicely. Here is a full list of fights that have been talked about so far. The only official bout is the Sonnen-Okami fight which was announced on the UFC’s Japanese website.

* Champion Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (For light-heavyweight title)
* Shane Carwin vs. Cain Velasquez
* Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen
* Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
* Ryan Bader vs. Eric Schafer
* Rob Kimmons vs. Jorge Rivera
* Patrick Barry vs. Antoni Hardonk
* Razak Al-Hassan vs. Kyle Kingsbury