UFC 111: Preliminaries

UFC 111: Preliminaries
The Prudential Center
Newark, New Jersey
March 27, 2010
Spike TV

UFC 111 features Georges St. Pierre defending the Welterweight Championship against Dan Hardy and Frank Mir battling Shane Carwin for the Interim Heavyweight Championship on PPV. But first live on Spike TV will be Ricardo Almeida fighting TUF alum Matt Brown and TUF Winner Nate Diaz fighting Rory Markham.

Welterweight Fight- Ricardo Almeida (11-3) vs. Matt Brown (13-7)

This is the Welterweight debut for Almeida.

R1- Almeida got a take down at the end of the first minute of the fight but Brown got back to his feet without any damage. Lots of clinching in this round, Almeida started to throw some strikes at the end of the round. Almeida 10-9.

R2- Almeida got a take down in the first couple of seconds of the round but Brown moved back to the cage and got back to his feet very quickly. Almedia tripped Brown and took side control and landed some strikes before Brown could get back to his feet. Brown threw a kick and Almeida countered with a strike and a take down. Almeida opened up a cut on Brown. Almeida took Brown's back and clamped in the Rear Naked and finished the fight.

Winner: Ricardo Almeida by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R2 3:30

Joe Rogan interviews Georges St. Pierre about his title fight tonight against Dan Hardy.

A sneak preview of the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter featuring Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz is shown.

Middleweight Fight- Nate Diaz (11-5) vs. Rory Markham (16-5)

Diaz is moving up to Welterweight for this fight but Markham failed to make weight but Diaz agreed to take the fight anyway and it was moved up to a Middleweight fight. Markham is coming off of around a year long layoff due to injury and Mike Goldberg points that out as a reason he didn't make weight. Diaz has a 5" reach advantage.

R1- Markham looks like he's fighting in a completely different weight class than Diaz. he is just so thick compared to Diaz. Diaz is landing some jabs early. Diaz landed some good shots and Markham went to his knees. Diaz took Markham's back and landed some strikes to the head and body. Diaz started landing good strikes to the head and the ref stopped the fight. Great showing by Diaz.

Winner: Nate Diaz by TKO (Strikes) R1 2:47

Joe Rogan interviews Dan Hardy about his title fight tonight against GSP. Hardy has some freaky red contacts in.

Joe Rogan and Dana White hype the fights for the PPV.

Middleweight Fight- Rousimar Palhares vs. Tomasz Drwal

R1- Drwal went for a kick and slipped and Palhares jumped on him and immediately went for his leg and tapped him out with a leg lock. Wow, Palhares the pit bull. This is the same guy that took Dan Henderson to the distance in Atlanta. He could be a tough out in the Middleweight division.

Winner: Rousimar Palhares by Submission (Leg Lock) R1 0:45