Quarterly Rankings
Hard-hitting Italian middleweight Alessio Sakara has been forced out of his televised main card bout against former middleweight title contender Nate Marquardt at UFC 116 in July due to the death of this father.
F4Wonline.com was the first to report news of the death of Sakara's passing as well as Sakara's withdrawal from UFC 116.
Marquardt is still expected to remain on the card, with the UFC having enough time to find a suitable replacement opponent for him.
Sakara (15-7) received the match up against Marquardt at UFC 116, which was expected to be arguably his toughest test inside the Octagon thus far. He has steadily climbed the ranks of the UFC middleweight division and is currently in the midst of a three fight winning streak. During the streak, he has notched victories over Joe Vedepo, Thales Leites and most recently James Irvin at UFC on Versus 1 on March 21.
The wins came at a much needed time for Sakara as he previously went through a 1-2 stretch that saw him suffer TKO losses to Houston Alexander and Chris Leben. He has put together a 6-4 (1 NC) UFC record, with other Octagon wins coming over Victor Valimaki, Elvis Sinosic and James Lee.
Marquardt (29-9-2) is coming off of a loss against Chael Sonnen at UFC 109 in February. Prior to the loss, he nearly earned a rematch with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva after putting together three straight stoppage wins over Martin Kampmann, Wilson Gouveia and Demian Maia.
Though not officially announced, UFC 116 is expected take place on July 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV, and will likely be headlined by a UFC heavyweight title unification bout between UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and interim heavyweight champ Shane Carwin.
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