A four-hour show in Japan seems kind of short in comparison to most mixed martial arts events that take place in the Orient, but the Octagon’s long-awaited return to The Land of the Rising Sun will run 60 minutes longer than their typical pay-per-view broadcasts.
Next Saturday’s “UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson” event will showcase seven fights on the main card, as opposed to the five live bouts that typically appear in a PPV broadcast.
The scraps originally slated for the prelims that received the promotion were Yushin Okami vs. Tim Boetsch and Hatsu Hioki vs. Bart Palaszewski.
The event takes place Sunday, February 26th inside Saitama Super Arena in Saitama in order to accommodate a Saturday, February 25th 10PM ET/7PM PT start time in North America.
A lightweight title affair between Frankie Edgar (Pictured) and Ben Henderson headlines the festivities.
Here is the show’s revised agenda:
Preliminary Card:
Tiequan Zhang vs. Issei Tamura
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Chris Cariaso
Steve Cantwell vs. Riki Fukuda
(FX 8PM ET/5PM PT)
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto vs. Vaughan Lee
Takanori Gomi vs. Eiji Mitsuoka
Main Card:
(Pay-Per-View 10PM ET/7PM PT)
Joe Lauzon vs. Anthony Pettis
Hatsu Hioki vs. Bart Palaszewski
Yushin Okami vs. Tim Boetsch
Jake Shields vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Cheick Kongo vs. Mark Hunt
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Ryan Bader
Ben Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar (UFC Lightweight Champion)
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