Amidst a late-night marathon on Twitter on Thursday night, UFC co-owner Lornzo Fertitta broke quite a bit of news, including heavyweights Cain Velasquez vs. Frank Mir and bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber 3 being likely for the summer.
Fertitta also announced that heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem will take place at UFC 146 and that a rubber match between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz is in the works.
According to Fertitta, Velasquez, who dos Santos knocked out in just 64-seconds to win the heavyweight title in November, is likely to take on another former champion in Mir next, but he did not announce which upcoming event will host the matchup.
Velasquez (9-1) has not fought since that loss, the first of his career, while Mir (16-5) was in action at UFC 140 in December, defeating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira via kimura.
While Fertitta did not go into detail on the matchup, it is likely to be a number one contender’s bout, with the winner taking on the winner of dos Santos vs. Overeem.
Meanwhile, Cruz and Faber will appear as opposing coaches on the upcoming 15th season of The Ultimate Fighter on FX and, according to Fertitta, the rubber match between the two is expected to take place at UFC 148 on July 7th in Las Vegas.
Cruz and Faber each have one win in their first two matches against each other, with Faber defeating Cruz via guillotine choke in their first matchup at WEC 26 in March 2007 and Cruz avenging his only career loss four years later at UFC 132, where he defeated Faber via unanimous decision.
Fertitta added that Rich Franklin is also expected to make his return to the Octagon at UFC 148. Franklin, the former UFC middleweight champion, has not fought since UFC 126, where he lost to Griffin. He was scheduled to fight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 133 in August, but Nogueira withdrew, and the UFC was unable to find Franklin a replacement opponent. He then underwent shoulder surgery in October to repair a torn labrum suffered during training.
Finally, Fertitta commented on Nick Diaz failing his drug test at UFC 143. While he did not comment on when he expected Diaz to be eligible to return, he did confirm that the UFC would like to have him back, stating “really like the kid just needs to get it together. I’m a sap for real fighters.”
