Leading into arguably the biggest event in company history this Saturday, the UFC made another announcement official Tuesday, confirming their next Ultimate Fight Night for Wednesday, September 16th on Spike TV - the same night season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter debuts.

UFN 19 - emanating from the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City, OK, will feature Nate Diaz vs. Melvin Guillard as the main event with Gray Maynard vs. the returning Roger Huerta heading up the undercard.

Diaz (10-4) comes in on a two-fight losing streak, dropping decisions to Clay Guida and Joe Stevenson, while Guillard (22-7-2-1) has won his last three, the last coming via split decision over Gleison Tibau in June.

After going to a no contest in his UFC debut against Rob Emerson in June 2007, Maynard (7-0-1) has won his last five, the last four by unanimous decision. Sports Illustrated cover boy Huerta (20-2-1) has been on a sabbatical to pursue acting since losing to Kenny Florian via unanimous decision at UFC 87 last August. This is the last fight on his contract and it's unclear as to whether he's interested in signing a new deal.

Tickets are on sale for Fight Club members Thursday with a presale Friday using the word 'fight' with Saturday being the general on-sale.

Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. He has been a contributor to Fight Magazine since January 2009. If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com. Thank you for your support!

The August 15th Strikeforce event on Showtime continues to form as their Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem will defend against former UFC heavyweight Fabricio Werdum on the show.

Despite winning the belt over Paul Buentello (29-11-1) back in November 2007 (seen here), this will be the first defense of the title for the 29-year-old Overeem since that victory as he has mainly been competing in Japan's DREAM.

He has compiled a 3-0-1 record since then with his last competion coming in November 2008.

Werdum (11-4-1) was last seen getting KO'd by Junior dos Santos at UFC 90 in October 2008. After a 2-2 mark with the organization, the 31-year-old was released. He's been a pro since June 2002 and has fought top talent like Gabriel Gonzaga, former UFC interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Nogueira and Andrei Arlovski.

These two actually fought back in May 2006 for PRIDE with Werdum submitting Overeeem with a 2nd-round kimura.

The show has nearly been completely filled out with this and last week's announcement of Nate Diaz vs. Joe Riggs added to a show that will feature Gina Carano vs. Cris Santos as the main event and Lightweight Champion Josh Thompson vs. Gilbert Melendez.

Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. He has been a contributor to Fight Magazine since January 2009. If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com. Thank you for your support!

WEC Lightweight Champion Jamie Varner may never fight again due to injuries he suffered in a recent win over top contender Donald Cerrone, according to WEC founder Reed Harris.

In the January fight at WEC 38, Varner suffered a broken hand and a broken foot in the controversial win over Cerrone, one that was stopped due to an illegal knee by Cerrone that blurred Varner's vision to the point he could no longer fight.

Because of the foul, the fight went to the scorecards and Varner won by a technical decision.

Harris did an interview with the Youngstown, OH, Vindicator, in which he said the injuries Varner suffered in that win may be career-ending. Cerrone and Ben Henderson are set to fight for the newly-created interim Lightweight title at the Youngstown show on September 2nd.

This lead to speculation that Varner (16-2) could be stripped of the title if he is unable to compete. However, in an interview with MMAJunkie.com, Harris did a little bit of backtracking and denied that Varner has been forced to vacate the belt and that the organization hopes "Jamie can come back later this year and defend his title against whoever wins the interim title. We just couldn't put the division on hold. We had to move it forward. ... Donald and Benson were elated."

Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007 and is a contributing writer for Fight Magazine. If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com. Thank you for your support!

For those of you keeping score at home, here's the damn-near-full lineups for the multitude of MMA cards coming up including this Friday's Strikeforce Challengers event, Saturday's Ultimate Finale 9, UFC 100 and Affliction's August PPV.

Friday - Strikeforce Challengers @ ShoWare Center - Kent, WA

TV: Showtime @ 11 pm EST/8 pm PST

Main Card:

- Joey Villasenor (26-6) vs. Evangelista Santos (16-12)
- Nick Thompson (38-10-1) vs. Tim Kennedy (9-2)
- Jorge Gurgel (12-5) vs. Conor Heun (8-2)
- Sarah Kaufman (8-0) vs. Shayna Baszler (9-5)
- Cory Devela (9-2) vs. Luke Rockhold (4-1)

Non-Televised:

- Dennis Hallman (40-12-2) vs. Cedric Marks (26-18)
- Brian Caraway (10-3) vs. Alex Zuniga (2-1)
- Lyle Beerbohm vs. Duane Ludwig (18-8)
- Landon Showalter (7-12-1) vs. Travis Doerge (4-8)
- Len Bentley (3-2) vs. Marques Daniels (1-2)
- Steve Hadsel (1-0) vs. Taylor Roberts (1-1)

Saturday - UFC Ultimate Fight Night 9 @ The Pearl - Las Vegas, NV
TV: Spike @ 9pm EST

Main Card:

- Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida
- Joe Stevenson vs. Nate Diaz
- DaMarques Johnson vs. James Wilks (TUF Middleweight Finals)
- Ross Pearson vs. Andre Winner (TUF Lightweight Finals)
- Chris Lytle vs. Kevin Burns

Non-Televised:

- Cameron Dollar vs. Jason Dent
- Frank Lester vs. Nick Osipczak (After Wednesday's final show, I hope this fight gets air. Talk about a story.)
- Mike Ciesnolevicz vs. Thomas Drwal (battle of the hard to spell last names)
- Edgar Garcia vs. Brad Blackburn
- Gleison Tibau vs. Melvin Guillard

Saturday, July 11 - UFC 100 @ Mandalay Bay - Las Vegas, NV
TV: PPV @ 10 pm ET/7 PM PT

Main Card:

- Heavyweight Title Unification match: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir
- Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves
- Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping
- Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago
- Yoshihiro Akiayama vs. Alan Belcher

Non-Televised:

- Stephan Bonnar vs. Mark Coleman
- Mac Danzig vs. Jim Miller
- Matt Grice vs. Shannon Gugerty
- C.B. Dollaway vs. Tom Lawlor
- Dong Hyun Kim vs. T.J. Grant
- Jon Jones vs. Jake O'Brien

Saturday, August 1 - Affliction: Trilogy @ Honda Center - Anaheim, CA
TV: PPV

Main Card:

- WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett
- Jay Hieron vs. Paul Daley
- Paul Buentello vs. TBD
- Vitor Belfort vs. Jorge Santiago
- Renato Sobral vs. Gegard Mousasi

HD Net:

- Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon
- Ben Rothwell vs. Chase Gormley
- Devidas Taurosevicius vs. Brett Cooper

Non-Televised:

- Jessie Gibbs vs. Rob Broughton
- Lucio Linhares vs. Giv Santana

Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. He has been a contributor to Fight Magazine since January 2009.If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com. Thank you for your support!