Quarterly Rankings
The holes in the injury riddled UFC 108 card are slowly being filled, as IFL veteran John Gunderson will make his Octagon debut against Rafaello Oliviera in a lightweight bout slated for the preliminary portion of the card. News of the bout was first reported by MMAWeekly.com.
Oliviera was left opponent-less after his originally scheduled UFC 108 counterpart, Sean Sherk, was moved up to the main card to replace the injured Tyson Griffin against Jim Miller.
Gunderson (22-6) enters the Octagon having gone 5-1 in his last six bouts including three-straight victories. He most recently saw action in October, defeating Steve Sharp via third-round submission. Gunderson's lone loss during the six fight stretch came against rising prospect Bryan Travers in May of this year.
Gunderson has competed for a host of notable promotions over his seven-year career such as; Ring of Fire, Rage in the Cage, Palace Fighting Championship, DesertBrawl, SportFight, Gladitor Challenger and the IFL. He has finished 20 of his 22 career wins, including 15 by submission, and holds other notable career wins over the likes of Enoch Wilson, Charles Bennett, Cam Ward, Mike Joy, Eric Regan and Alexander Crispim.
Oliveira (9-2) is coming off of a loss in his UFC debut against Nik Lentz at UFC 103 in September. Prior to the loss, he had put together a three-fight winning streak. Oliveira has finished seven of his nine career wins. His only other career loss came against Strikeforce lightweight contender Lyle Beerbohm at an ShoXC event in October 2008.
UFC 108 takes place on Jan. 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV, and the event's main card will be televised live on pay-per-view.
The event is headlined by a light-heavyweight bout between Rashad Evans and Thiago Silva. Other bouts featured on the main card include Paul Daley vs. Dustin Hazelett and Gilbert Yvel vs. Junior dos Santos.
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