98 Days Out: Evan Dunham Vs Edson Barboza Booked For UFC 146

The first few fights for UFC 146 are starting to make their way down the pipe, first with Jason Miller announcing on his twitter that he'd be fighting C.B. Dolloway at the event, next with Dana White taking to his own twitter to make Evan Dunham vs Edson Barboza an official match up for the card. After taking the UFC on the road for a good stretch, they are looking to return to Las Vegas and the MGM grand for the Memorial Day weekend. There is talk that they will book the heavyweight championship between Junior Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem and perhaps Cain Velasquez against Frank Mir in a number one contenders fight, which would make it quite the card.

Dunham and Barboza are both coming off Fight of the Night performances, (Barboza is actually coming off of three straight) Dunham putting on the best fight of the entire UFC on FOX 2 event, a second round TKO over Nik Lentz, while Barboza used a spinning heel kick to earn a KO of Terry Etim in the third round at UFC 142.

Dunham is 6-2 in the organization, having bounced back with two straight wins after a controversial split decision loss to Sean Sherk and a not so controversial knock out loss to Melvin Guillard removed him from the unbeaten list in an hurry. Barboza is still on that list, having notched the same four straight wins that Dunham had before meeting Sherk.

This fight is a great candidate to be the first bout of the night on pay per view. Barboza has yet to face a grappler of Dunham's calibre, while Dunham has probably never faced a technician like Barboza. Dunham has felt the wrath of a powerful striker in Guillard, so that may give him some clarity in terms of where he wants to keep the fight.

My early pick is Evan Dunham by decision.

Evan Dunham is the 20th ranked lightweight in the world. He fights out of Xtreme Couture.
Edson Barboza is unranked. He fights out of The Armory.