The UFC has officially confirmed two changes to forthcoming events, with Tyson Griffin scheduled to face Takanori Gomi, and Jon Fitch put back on collision course with Thiago Alves. Gomi had originally agreed to fight Joe Stevenson at UFC on Versus, which is headlined by Jon Jones' clash with Vladimir Matyushenko, but Stevenson was forced to withdraw due to injury. Griffin, who lost a decision to Evan Dunham in his last outing, steps in as a late replacement. UFC 117 now appears to be one of the biggest events of the year after Fitch and Alves were confirmed as the main event for a card headlined by Anderson Silva's middleweight title defence against Chael Sonnen. http://www.espn.co.uk/ufc/sport/story/31660.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
Fitch is going to wrestle Alves to a decision. I'm hoping for an exciting fight but I don't see it happening. Gomi is washed up. Griffin will run circles around him.
Just speaks to the depth of the lightweight division in the UFC, when someone as good as Joe Stevenson gets hurt, and they get someone just as good or better to step right in and replace him. With the BJ Penn loss, if it proves that wasn't a fluke win by Edgar, this might just be from top to bottom the most interesting division in the UFC. I co-sign above with the Fitch vs Alves fight. Although I thought Fitch did better at staying active in his last fight, and was a lot less bored than usual, still see this as a grind it out victory like usual.