Ontario’s Mark Holst faces Paul Sass at UFC 120, Claude Patrick to fight on televised main card

By Mike Johnston

Another Ontario fighter has joined Mississauga’s Claude Patrick on the UFC 120 card. Ottawa native Mark Holst is set to fight undefeated British lightweight Paul Sass in a preliminary bout.

Holst (8-2) looks to get back in the win column after losing his promotional debut to John Gunderson at The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale in June. Holst trains out of Renzo Gracie’s affiliate academy, the Ottawa Academy of Martial Arts, and has wins over Canadian Nabil Khatib and TUF veteran Corey Hill among others.

His opponent, Sass (10-0), has been scheduled to fight at UFC 120, which takes place in his home country on October 16, for several weeks but remained without an opponent. Joe Silva called upon the Canadian and Holst accepted the challenge.

The U.K. event is headlined by a middleweight matchup between Michael Bisping and Yoshihiro Akiyama. Also on the main card, Mississauga’s Claude Patrick enters enemy territory as he takes on Ultimate Fighter 9 winner James Wilks.

UFC 120 is available to watch on free television across Canada on Spike TV and Rogers Sportsnet. Here is a look at the card:

MAIN CARD

- Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Michael Bisping

- Carlos Condit vs. Dan Hardy

- John Hathaway vs. Mike Pyle

- Travis Browne vs. Cheick Kongo

- Claude Patrick vs. James Wilks

PRELIMINARY CARD

- Cyrille Diabate vs. Alexander Gustafsson

- Steve Cantwell vs. Stanislav Nedkov

- Spencer Fisher vs. Kurt Warburton

- Tom Blackledge vs. James McSweeney

- Rob Broughton vs. Vinicius Kappke de Quieroz

- Mark Holst vs. Paul Sass