UFC 150: Cane vs Okami and Tavares vs Hallman added to August 11 event in Denver

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to the city where it all began on August 11, 2012, with UFC 150 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. And the fight card is filling up quick.

For starters, Luiz Cane will make his middleweight debut against Yushin Okami. The Brazilian bomber lost three of four at his old light heavyweight home, including a first round knockout loss to Stanislav Nedkov at UFC 134 in Aug. 2011.

That was enough motivation to drop some extra baggage and try his luck in a new weight class.

He's getting thrown into the fire, though, as he'll battle a man just two fights removed from contesting for the 185-pound title. Never mind the fact that he was systematically destroyed in that fight by Anderson Silva at the same event that Cane was knocked out by Nedkov.

Okami suffered a second straight loss in his next fight, a bizarre knockout at the hands of "The Barbarian," Tim Boetsch. That's two strikes for "Thunder." Will he make it to a third?

Joining the middleweight maulers on the card are a pair of lightweights who have been playing a game of musical chairs. Dennis Hallman was booked to fight Tony Ferguson at UFC on Fox 3 before suffering an injury. He would be replaced by Thiago Tavares but he, too, would be forced to pull out of the bout.

Now they're matched up against each other.

Tavares has lost just once in his last six contests, though it was an explosively memorable one hitter quitter knockout via Shane Roller. He's rebounded strong with a pair of wins over the always tough Spencer Fisher and Sam Stout.

Hallman, meanwhile, failed miserably to make weight for his first drop down to 155-pounds against John Makdessi back at UFC 140 on Dec. 11, 2011, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It didn't matter, as he went on to choke Makdessi out in the first round.

Let's see if he can win his next lightweight tilt and make weight for the fight.

UFC 150 is expected to be headlined by the lightweight championship rematch no one was clamoring for, as Ben Henderson puts his 155-pound strap on the line against former titleholder Frankie Edgar.

Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more on this still-developing fight card.