Edgar-Penn III Set for July 6th

A few months ago, we announced that former UFC Lightweight Champions, Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn would be cast as the coaches of the nineteenth season of the hit reality show the Ultimate Fighter.  Now we have received word that a date has been set for the two men to meet for the third match of their trilogy.  Edgar and Penn will be going to war at the TUF 19 Finale at the end of the season on July 6th.  The two men first faced each other in the Lightweight Division in which Edgar defeated Penn for the UFC Lightweight Championship at UFC 112.  He later defended the title against Penn in an instant rematch at UFC 118.  The two will now face each other in the UFC's Featherweight Division where Frankie Edgar has found a new home in the UFC.  BJ Penn has never fought at Featherweight in his career, but wanted the fight with Edgar so bad that he was willing to make the weight cut.

This certainly could be a barn burner between the two fighters.  In the first two fights, we saw Edgar outclass Penn.  Though Penn has never fought at Featherweight I predict that Penn will take this fight due to the fact that he has flew down to Brazil to train with Nova Uniao and Anthony Pedernieras whom he trained with early in his career.  With guys like Jose Aldo, Diego Nunes and Renan Barao to train with, I think it gives him just enough to defeat Edgar in their third fight.

Davey Grant Joins the UFC Roster

Despite losing an entertaining fight to the Chris Holdsworth, Davey Grant has been added as a fighter in the UFC's Mens' Bantamweight Division.  He confirmed the news via Twitter stating that he was getting a contract with the UFC.

I think that it was a wise decision for them to go ahead and and bring Grant to the UFC  considering how unexciting the UFC's Bantamweight Division is. The division has a champion who has stood on top of the division without even fighting in it for two years. The Bantamweight division is the only division that the word 'blah' comes to mind and doing TUF for that division was the best move for the company to bring in some great talent and Grant is one of those great talents.

TUF 18 Finale Weigh-in Results

MAIN CARD:

Nate Diaz (156) vs. Gray Maynard (156)
Julianna Pena (134) vs. Jessica Rakoczy (132)
Davey Grant (135) vs. Chris Holdsworth (136)
Jessamyn Duke (135.5) vs. Peggy Morgan (136)
Roxanne Modafferi (134) vs. Raquel Pennington (135)

PRELIMINARY CARD:

Maximo Blanco (146) vs. Akira Corassani (146)
Tom Niinimaki (145) vs. Rani Yahya (145.5)
Walter Harris (244) vs. Jared Rosholt (240)
Drew Dober (170) vs. Sean Spencer (171)
Ryan Benoit (126) vs. Joshua Sampo (127.5)

Anthony Pettis Injured, Henderson Returns to the Octogon

With Anthony Pettis suffering with an injured knee, Anthony Pettis is being pulled out of his title fight with Josh Thomson at UFC on Fox 9.  That fight is being entirely pulled from that card and will instead be headlined by Demetrius Johnson versus Joseph Benavidez II.  Since that fight was originally scheduled to be the headlining fight for the TUF 18 finale, Nate Diaz's fight with Gray Maynard will be headlining the TUF 18 finale.  Also with Pettis out of his title fight, the UFC has decided to put Thomson in a fight with former UFC Lightweight Champion, Benson Henderson in January 2014. This will be Henderson's first fight since losing the title in late August. 

Johnson-Benavidez II Set for November

The UFC has announced today that they are going to be putting Demetrius Johnson and Joseph Benavidez back in the cage to face each other again.  The two will be the main event for the TUF Finale on November 30.  This will be an interesting rematch to watch.  Both men have gotten increasingly better with every fight.  Both men have truly outclassed their opponents since their last fight against each other.  Demetrius Johnson has successfully defended the UFC Flyweight title twice now since they first met last year.  Benavidez has fought three times since their last meeting and beaten all three men.

This is an exiting fight that makes complete since right now considering the state of the UFC Flyweight Division right now.  With Ian McCall still needing a few more decisive victories before he is even in the same conversation as Benavidez or Johnson, this will truly be a battle of the top two guys in the division.  In their last fight "Mighty Mouse" Johnson seemed to be the quicker more technical fighter of the two and it was very noticible even with Benavidez keeping the fight competitive; it just wasn't enough.  The fight was very close and led to a split decision in which Johnson had his hand raised at the end of the bell.