UFC 111: St-Pierre VS Hardy, Mir VS Carwin, Changes to Lower Card

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UFC 111: St-Pierre VS Hardy in Main Event

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UFC 111 will take place March 27 at the sold out Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The card is shaping up to be worthy of any Pay-Per-View price, with Georges “Rush” St-Pierre and Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy headlining in the Welterweight Title bout.

St-Pierre of Montreal will defend the UFC Welterweight Title—for the first time in 8 months—against the underdog Hardy of Nottingham, England in the main event. A win for St-Pierre would make this his 4th consecutive title defense.

UFC 111 Card

• UFC Welterweight Championship – Georges St-Pierre VS Dan Hardy
• Interim Heavyweight Championship – Frank Mir VS Shane Carwin
• Lightweight Bout – Kurt Pellegrino VS Fabricio Camoes
• Welterweight Bout – Jon Fitch VS Ben Saunders
• Lightweight Bout – Jim Miller VS Mark Bocek

Title Match a First for Hardy

Hardy has never fought a UFC bout in the United States and will be the first British fighter to compete for UFC gold—perhaps to become the first British fighter to win it. He intends to leave UFC 111 with the Welterweight Title belt around his waist.

In the previous match, former Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir will fight fellow American Shane Carwin—who is undefeated in 11 UFC bouts—for the Interim Heavyweight Championship. Brock Lesnar, the current Heavyweight Champion, fell ill in October and was unable to compete against Carwin at UFC 106.

Lesnar is set to return in the summer and will likely face the winner of the Interim Heavyweight Championship bout to merge his Heavyweight title with the Interim Heavyweight title.

Changes Made to Non-Title Bouts

Americans Jon Fitch and Ben Saunders are scheduled to face each other after a series of booking changes. Saunders was originally to fight Martin Kampmann, who got cut deeply in training and was replaced with Jake Ellenberger.

On March 25, Thiago “Pitbull” Alves suffered a brain injury and was removed from his bout with Jon Fitch. Saunders then requested to face Fitch. Ellenberger will not compete, but is getting paid for the last-minute switch.

Kurt Pellegrino of the U.S. faces Fabricio Camoes of Brazil in a lightweight bout, as will American Jim Miller and Canadian Mark Bocek.

Additional UFC Bouts to Air on Spike TV

Spike TV will also broadcast 2 preliminary bouts before UFC 111:

• Welterweight Bout – Nate Diaz VS Rory Markham
• Welterweight Bout – Ricardo Almeida VS Matt Brown

And 3 more bouts will not be aired:

• Light Heavyweight Bout – Rodney Wallace VS Jared Hamman
• Middleweight Bout – Rouismar Palhares VS Tomasz Drwal
• Welterweight Bout – Matthew Riddle VS Greg Soto

UFC Weight Classes

The UFC uses 5 weight classes for fighters:

• Lightweight: 146-155 pounds
• Welterweight: 156-170 pounds
• Middleweight: 171-185 pounds
• Light Heavyweight: 186-205 pounds
• Heavyweight: 206 to 265 pounds