The Ultimate Fighting Championship has confirmed that Jose “Junior” Aldo (18-1 MMA, 8-0 WEC) will make his first title defense as “UFC featherweight champion” against Josh “The Fluke” Grispi (14-1 MMA, 4-0 WEC) in the “UFC 125: Resolution” co-main event on Jan. 1, 2011.
Aldo has defended his featherweight title (previously known as the “WEC featherweight title”) twice since winning the belt from Mike Brown via second round TKO in Nov. 2009. He defeated Urijah Faber via unanimous decision at WEC 48 in April of this year and then scored a second round knock out over Manny Gamburyan at UFC 51 in September.
Since arriving in the WEC in Feb. 2008, Grispi has scored four straight first round victories, starting with a submission of Mark Hominick at WEC 32, a TKO over Micah Miller at WEC 35, a submission of Jens Pulver at WEC 41 and most recently, a technical submission (meaning he went to sleep) of L.C. Davis at WEC 49 back in June.
The UFC is starting 2011 with an absolute bang. The “UFC 125: Resolution” main event will feature UFC lightweight champion Frankie “The Answer” Edgar (13-1) defending his title against undefeated Gray “The Bully” Maynard (10-0, 1 NC). Other bouts expected to take place at UFC 125 include Chris Leben vs. Brian Stann, Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera, Clay Guida vs. Takanori Gomi, Nate Diaz vs. Dong Hyun Kim, Antonio McKee vs. Jacob Volkmann and Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares.
Random Note: Both guys in the FW title fight are taller than the competitors at LW. Maynard is listed at 5’8, but after meeting him last year he definately is not that height.
If Aldo smashes Grispi I bet he tries to get a fight with Edgar if he wins. I think he sees that as a fight he can win rather than just moving up and working his way thru the division. I think he sees guys like Florian, and Maynard as too big.