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UFC Fight Night Rockhold VS Branch aka UFC Fight Night 116, will feature a middleweight headliner between former UFC champion Luke Rockhold and former two-division WSOF titleholder David Branch.
Fight records:
Luke Rockhold vs. David Branch
Records: Luke Rockhold (15-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC), David Branch (21-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC)
Past five: Rockhold 4-1, Branch 5-0
Division: Middleweight
Rankings: Rockhold No. 3, Branch No. 9
The Main card includes:
Middleweight — Luke Rockhold vs. David Branch
Welterweight — Mike Perry vs. Alex Reyes
Middleweight — Hector Lombard vs. Anthony Smith
Lightweight — Gregor Gillespie vs. Jason Gonzalez
Welterweight — Kamaru Usman vs. Sergio Moraes
Heavyweight — Justin Ledet vs. Zu Anyanwu
About the event:
A heavyweight bout between Justin Ledet and Dmitriy Sosnovskiy was expected to take place at UFC Fight Night: Bermudez vs. Korean Zombie. However, Ledet pulled out of the fight on January 26 alleging an undisclosed injury, and promotion officials elected to remove Sosnovskiy from the card. In turn, the UFC confirmed that Ledet was suspended for four months after testing positive for a banned substance. The fight was expected to take place at this event. Subsequently, Sosnovskiy was removed from the card on September 10 and replaced by promotional newcomer Zu Anyanwu.
Natural calamity causing replacement :
The welterweight prospect was originally set to face Thiago Alves on Saturday's card, but Alves ended up stranded in Florida following Hurricane Irma and was forced to pull out of the fight. That left the UFC scrambling to find a short notice replacement with just three days before the event.
Alex Reyes:
Alex Reyes will make his UFC debut replacing Thiago Alves, who was unable to leave Florida following Hurricane Irma. Reyes is 12-2 with all his wins coming via finish, often in the first round. His only two losses came at the very beginning of his career, back in 2007. Across the cage, Perry is coming off a brutal KO win over Jake Ellenberger and is currently 10-1, 3-1 in the UFC.
Anthony Smith VS Hector Lombard:
During an interview with Smith with a well-known online portal, he said, ‘“Hector Lombard is not who I wanted to fight. And it’s not for any other reason other than, I don’t look at Hector how everyone else sees Hector. Hector’s reputation is far greater than he is right now. I don’t see the savage killer that everybody else sees. I see a guy that’s at the tail-end of his career, that’s on a three-fight losing streak, that leads me to a no-win situation. If I beat Hector, I’m supposed to.”
Tune in to UFC Fight Night 116: Luke Rockhold vs. David Branch Live and Exclusive on SONY ESPN and SONY ESPN HD on Sunday 17th September 2017 at 7:30 AM
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