UFC 111 News: GSP, Frank Mir, and Nate Diaz Have Starring Roles

The Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., will be rockin’ on March 27, as the big boys of the Ultimate Fighting Championship roll into town for an interim title match to settle once and for all who could be the next heir to the UFC heavyweight throne.

Depending on a much anticipated announcement from current title holder Brock Lesnarand his camp, which could come as early as tomorrow, Frank Mir or Shane Carwin could be destined for a title shot at the mammoth former wrestler sometime later this year.

The other match on the card—also a great one, and one that could be seen as Canada versus the UK—unfortunately seems more like a no-brainer,…at least on paper.

The current UFC welterweight champion and elite French-Canadian pound-for-pound fighter Georges St-Pierre will be looking to get past a man who, with a win here, would become the cage-fighting pride of the UK.

That man is UFC 170-pound No. 1 contender Dan Hardy.

The surprise announcement today doesn’t come from those stories, but from AHN Sports reporter Matthew Harvey, found here.

The article states that recent bad boy/sore loser Nate Diaz will be moving upward to welterweight in order to challenge Rory Markham in a fight that will reportedly also take place in Jersey, at UFC 111.

Diaz, who recently lost a decision to top ‘55 contender Gray Maynard, has gone on record to adamantly complain about the unfortunate loss.

A loss which he feels was a corrupt decision by the ringside UFC judges and the PPV on-air commentators.

Diaz firmly stated (on a recent YouTube.com video which has since been removed) that he feels he had the majority decision in his pocket, if the fight had been ruled fairly.

In any case, the mean-looking younger of the two fighting Diaz brothers has now decided to pack on some much-needed beef and will be moving from 155 pounds to 170.

In the well-written AHN Sports article, Mr. Harvey suggests the reasoning behind the Diaz voyage into the shark-infested waters of 170 are simple.

At 155 pounds, the young Diaz resembles the proverbial human laboratory skeleton, and he’s grown tired of literally “starving himself to death” to remain at that weight.

Also, Harvey says, the move upward in weight would be accompanied by more strength—and some much-needed knockout power.

I tend to agree.