Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is officially back on Facebook for yet another live feed of undercard bouts with its UFC 128 "Prelims" stream featuring Ricardo Almeida vs. Mike Pyle (welterweight) and Kurt Pellegrino vs. Gleison Tibau (lightweight) according to Sherdog.com.
UFC 128: "Shogun vs. Jones" is set for March 19, 2011, from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Almeida made his welterweight debut at UFC 111: "St. Pierre vs. Hardy," which was also held at "The Rock," nearly a year to the day that he'll return to "The Garden State" to try and push his 170-pound standing to 3-1.
After Matt Hughes schooled him on what a front headlock (and a ton of power) can do, "Big Dog" bounced back with a unanimous decision win over T.J. Grant in what he called an "unimpressive performance."
Replicating said performance could land him in Jersey "Quicksand."
If it seems like Mike Pyle has been around forever, it's because he has. A veteran of 29 professional fights, the Xtreme Couture product punched his ticket to the UFC after ripping off four wins in a row back in 2008.
He's gone a mediocre 3-2 with the world's largest fight promotion but he's currently riding a two-fight win streak and is fresh off a derailing of the John Hathaway hype train back at UFC 120.
At 35 years young, Pyle is battling the biological clock and a victory over Almeida may provide just the surge he needs to make one more run in his storied career.
Time will tell.
Kurt Pellegrino also returns home on March 19 hoping to duplicate his performance from UFC 111 a year ago when he pushed his win streak to four with a "Submission of the Night" over Fabricio Camoes -- and not the one where he was outworked by George Sotiropoulos a few months later at UFC 116.
He'll get to head back to the friendly confines of the Prudential Center to test his skills against yet another Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt -- and a very large one at that.
Gleison Tibau is a longtime veteran of the UFC who's had a bit of a roller coaster of a career. Originally a 170-pounder, the Brazilian has found a way to cut the necessary weight to make the UFC's shark tank 155-pound division.
It's been a bag of mixed results. He's defeated the likes of Jeremy Stephens and Josh Neer while losing to such lightweight stalwarts as Melvin Guillard and most recently, Jim Miller.
Both Tibau and Pellegrino will be looking to avoid a losing streak that, with decreased leeway being given now that the size of the roster has expanded (especially at lightweight) may cost them their jobs.
Sounds like a recipe for war.
UFC 128 will be headlined by Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, defending his 205-pound world title against division number one contender Jon "Bones" Jones in the main event of the evening.
Electrifying bantamweights, and former WEC champions, Urijah Faber and Eddie Wineland, are set to hook 'em up in the co-featured fight of the night.
For the current UFC 128 fight card and line up click here.