Update: UFC 138 Headed to England with Leben-Munoz 5-Rounder
Chris Nelson Jul 19, 2011
Chris
Leben and Mark Munoz
will lock horns in the main event of UFC
138, which will take place Nov. 5 at the 16,000-seat LG Arena
in Birmingham, England.
UFC officials announced Tuesday that the middleweight headliner will be the promotion’s first non-title bout to be scheduled for five rounds. The show will air on tape delay in North America on cable channel Spike TV.
The UFC’s Nov. 19 event in San Jose, Calif., previously thought to
be numbered UFC 138, will now be known as
UFC 139. That pay-per-view card will be headlined by a
heavyweight title bout between champion Cain
Velasquez and top contender Junior dos
Santos.
UFC 138 will mark the company’s first jaunt to England since UFC 120 in October 2010. In June, UFC U.K. Vice President Marshall Zelaznik told ESPN.co.uk that there was a “less than 20 percent” chance that the Octagon would return to the U.K. in 2011 due to difficulties with venues and broadcast details.
Leben, 30, recorded the biggest win of his nine-year career on July 2, mauling former Pride Fighting Championships star Wanderlei Silva with a 27-second knockout in the co-main event of UFC 132. The Hawaii resident has won four of his last five starts, including wins over Yoshihiro Akiyama and Aaron Simpson, but was knocked out by Brian Stann in January.
A former NCAA Division I wrestling champion at Oklahoma State University, Munoz (Pictured) has won three in a row, most recently taking a hard-fought unanimous decision over Demian Maia in June. Since losing his March 2009 Octagon debut to Matt Hamill via knockout, the 33-year-old “Filipino Wrecking Machine” has won six of seven and has not been finished, dropping only an August 2010 split decision to current top contender Yushin Okami.
This item was updated at 3:57 p.m. ET on July 19 with additional information released by the UFC.
UFC officials announced Tuesday that the middleweight headliner will be the promotion’s first non-title bout to be scheduled for five rounds. The show will air on tape delay in North America on cable channel Spike TV.
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UFC 138 will mark the company’s first jaunt to England since UFC 120 in October 2010. In June, UFC U.K. Vice President Marshall Zelaznik told ESPN.co.uk that there was a “less than 20 percent” chance that the Octagon would return to the U.K. in 2011 due to difficulties with venues and broadcast details.
Leben, 30, recorded the biggest win of his nine-year career on July 2, mauling former Pride Fighting Championships star Wanderlei Silva with a 27-second knockout in the co-main event of UFC 132. The Hawaii resident has won four of his last five starts, including wins over Yoshihiro Akiyama and Aaron Simpson, but was knocked out by Brian Stann in January.
A former NCAA Division I wrestling champion at Oklahoma State University, Munoz (Pictured) has won three in a row, most recently taking a hard-fought unanimous decision over Demian Maia in June. Since losing his March 2009 Octagon debut to Matt Hamill via knockout, the 33-year-old “Filipino Wrecking Machine” has won six of seven and has not been finished, dropping only an August 2010 split decision to current top contender Yushin Okami.
This item was updated at 3:57 p.m. ET on July 19 with additional information released by the UFC.
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