As expected, the UFC will hold its third FOX-televised event on May 5, and the first fight announced for the card looks like a guaranteed barnburner.
UFC president Dana White today announced that Nate Diaz (15-7 MMA, 9-5 UFC) vs. Jim Miller (21-3 MMA, 12-2 UFC) will take place on that date at UFC on FOX 3.
The event takes place at IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J.
Diaz enters the bout after back-to-back career bests, flashing moments of absolute domination in wins over Donald Cerrone and Takanori Gomi. The 26-year-old is just 4-2 in his past six fights, but with five "Fight of the Night" bonuses under his belt, he's a must-watch competitor and may very well work his way into title contention with a win.
Meanwhile, Miller looks to build on the strength of his impressive submission win over Melvin Guillard at this past weekend's UFC on FX 1 event. Miller was decisioned by Ben Henderson in a bid for a shot at the lightweight title, but he's still 9-1 in his past 10 fights and extremely relevant in the 155-pound title picture.
The UFC made its network-TV debut with UFC on FOX 1 in November. The abbreviated/teaser show featured just one televised fight – Junior Dos Santos' title-clinching knockout of then-heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez. However, on Saturday night at UFC on FOX 2 in Chicago, FOX airs three main-card bouts, and FX carries the event's full preliminary card.
UFC on FOX 3 is expected to have a similar setup.
The event takes place the same night as boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s bout in Las Vegas. With a long-awaited Manny Pacquiao fight unlikely, Mayweather likely will meet Miguel Cotto or Saul Alvarez instead. Still, it's enough of a draw to impact the UFC's event.
White, though, recently told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) it's unavoidable.
"We never plan it," he said. "But when you're picking dates, you've got boxing, NFL, playoffs, college basketball. You've got everything. Every other sport that's going on, everything that 18-to-34-year-olds are watching, there's something else out there that's going to compete with us. But it is what it is. If we sat around and stayed away from dates, we'd never go."
The UFC's first FOX event actually took place the same night as a Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez pay-per-view fight. However, the UFC event wrapped before the start of the boxing broadcast, and UFC on FOX 1 scored a North American MMA record peak of 8.8 million viewers for the fight (and 5.7 million overall for the one-hour special).
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