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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC's final Fox event for 2012 will be their biggest yet, as three huge fights have all been set for the Dec. 8 card.
A report broke on Twitter late Monday night by a Ross Finkelstein (@rossfinkelstein) that the event would host the UFC Lightweight Championship between Benson Henderson and Nate Diaz, alongside a light heavyweight bout between Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Alexander Gustafsson, and a welterweight bout between B.J. Penn and Rory MacDonald.
Though it seemed a bit "too good to be true," that report has since been corroborated, as USA Today reports that all three bouts are set for the event, per UFC officials. There is no location or venue set for the card, but San Jose, Anaheim, and Seattle have all been thrown out as potential host cities.
The Henderson-Diaz bout was set when Henderson managed to defend the title in a rematch against Frankie Edgar last Saturday night. Even though it was by a more than questionable split decision, he retained the belt, and meets Diaz, who headlined the third UFC on Fox card in May.
This will be the second Championship bout the UFC has aired on Fox, as the UFC's Fox debut last November kicked things off with the Heavyweight Championship bout between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez.
Rua is another fighter who has already competed on Fox, and he'll enter the night's co-main event off a victory over Brandon Vera. Gustafsson gets his first top ten opponent, and off an April victory over Thiago Silva he'll look to secure his own title shot in the UFC's Light Heavyweight division.
Finally, the Penn-MacDonald bout had been in the news for this event already, but it will be in a supporting role as opposed to the main event. The fight was originally scheduled for the UFC 152 event next month in Toronto, but MacDonald suffered a nasty cut in training that required 38 stitches and several weeks of healing time.
If that weren't enough, USA Today also reports that the card will feature at least one more fight on the Fox portion of the broadcast.
Penick's Analysis: At this stage, this isn't just the best free card the UFC has set up all year, it might be the best main card period with only these three fights. If that fourth fight is Donald Cerrone vs. Anthony Pettis - which would make sense to have the next title challenger compete on the same card as the Championship fight - then it's easily the best main card the UFC will put on this year. It's a crazy card for Fox given the way the last two, even three events were stacked up. With a title fight, a possible No. 1 contender fight (and a legitimate one at this point), not to mention what still is a great fight between Penn and MacDonald, this is just a fantastic event on paper. Of course, given the UFC's luck with injuries this summer, Henderson will get hurt in October, Rua will blow out his knee in November, and MacDonald's cut will re-open on Dec. 7.
[Ben Henderson art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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