Quarterly Rankings
Fresh off his victory at UFC 101 in his last bout as a middleweight, Ricardo Almeida will have a tough test in his welterweight debut as he is in talks to face American Kickboxing Academy's Jon Fitch at UFC 106, according to MMAmania.com.
Almeida was originally supposed to make the drop to welterweight prior to his UFC 101 bout, however, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva offered him a chance to fight in front of his hometown crowd if he remained at middleweight. He went on to defeat Kendall Grove on the televised portion of last weekend's UFC 101 event.
Since his return to MMA after a near 4-year layoff, Almeida has gone 3-1 in the UFC, with wins over Rob Yundt and Matt Horwich. His loss came against Patrick Cote at UFC 86 last July. In his previous stint with the organization from May 2001 to January 2002, he went 1-2. Beside the UFC, Almeida has fought for Pride and Pancrese. He holds other notable wins over the likes of Ryo Chonan, Ikuhisa Minowa, Kazuo Misaki and Nate Marquardt.
Fitch has won his last two bouts against Akihiro Gono and most recently Paulo Thiago at UFC 100 in July. He now holds an impressive 10-1 record in the UFC, with notable wins over Brock Larson, Thiago Alves, Chris Wilson and Diego Sanchez. His only loss in the octagon came against Georges St. Pierre in a welterweight title bout at UFC 87 last August. During his seven year career, Fitch has put together a 19-3 MMA record, with 9 wins by stoppage and 9 by decision. He holds other notable wins over Jeff Joslin, Shonie Carter and Jorge Ortiz.
UFC 106 takes place on November 21 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The only other rumored fight for the event is a light-heavyweight bout between former UFC light-heavyweight champ Tito Ortiz vs. former UFC heavyweight champ Mark Coleman.
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