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Chris Young / AP
Brazil’s Jose Aldo drops down onto a prone Mark Hominick, of Thamesford, Ontario, during their featherweight title fight at UFC 129 in Toronto on Saturday, April 30, 2011.
Published Friday, July 15, 2011 | 8 p.m.
Updated Friday, July 15, 2011 | 9:58 p.m.
The calendar indicates an off week for the UFC.
The promotion’s matchmaking staff, led by Joe Silva, would likely disagree. The UFC has used its recent downtime between fight cards to plan bouts for its fall schedule.
In the last two days, officials have confirmed 10 new matchups and nearly finalized the main cards for both UFC 136 Oct. 8 in Houston and UFC 137 Oct. 29 in Las Vegas.
Leading the excess of fight announcements are two championship bouts at UFC 136. Lightweights Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard will meet in their much-anticipated and long-delayed third fight in the night’s main event. The featherweight belt is also at risk, as Kenny Florian will challenge Jose Aldo in the co-main event.
Two other meaningful scraps will take place in Houston, as potential top 155-pound contender Melvin Guillard encounters Joe Lauzon and Brazilian middleweights Demian Maia and Jorge Santiago clash.
Those four fights combined with a previously announced bout between Chael Sonnen and Brian Stann will likely make up pay-per-view portion of UFC 136.
UFC 137’s main card has also taken shape. Two significant heavyweight bouts were revealed — Cheick Kongo vs. Matt Mitrione and Mirko Cro Cop vs. Roy Nelson — for the show at Mandalay Bay Events Center that Georges St. Pierre will headline.
A welterweight bout between B.J. Penn and Carlos Condit will also grace UFC 137. The pairing was made official Friday night after both fighters mentioned it previously on their twitter accounts.
Two probable preliminary card fights were also announced for UFC 136. In heavyweight action, Dave Herman will take on Mike Russow. Featherweights Josh Grispi and Matt Grice are also slated to appear in Houston.
Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or case.keefer@lasvegassun.com. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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