Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White announced Saturday night (Dec. 10, 2011) at the post-fight press conference for UFC 140 that the promotion would be adding a flyweight division to the roster.
White also announced that a four-man tournament, beginning on March 3rd, would determine the promotions first 125-pound champ. Squaring off in the four-man tournament will be former bantamweight contender Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson (9-2) who takes on Tachi Palace Fights flyweight champ Ian ‘Uncle Creepy’ McCall (11-2), while Team Alpha Male fighter Joseph Benavidez (15-2) meets Shooto 123-lbs champ Yasihiro Urushitani.
Despite White saying the event would air on pay-per-view during the UFC 140 press conference, he later confirmed in an interview that the event would take place on FX in Australia.
The UFC on FX 2 is expected to take place on Sunday March 4th, March 3rd in North America, at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia. Already confirmed for the event is a welterweight fight between Martin Kampmann vs. Thiago Alves.
Johnson was last in the Octagon on October 1st, losing to bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz at the UFC on Versus 6 show by unanimous decision in an entertaining affair. The loss ended a four fight win streak for ‘Mighty Mouse’ who is now 2-1 in the UFC.
McCall hasn’t competed since this past August when he captured the Tachi Palace Fights flyweight title, by earning a third round submission victory over Darrell Montague at TPF 10 in California. ‘Uncle Creepy’ has won four straight with his last loss coming to Dominick Cruz at WEC 38 back in January 2008.
Benavidez is 3-1 in his last four, which coincidentally includes a loss to Dominick Cruz at WEC 50 for the former promotions bantamweight title. Benavidez earned a unanimous decision over former WEC champ Eddie Wineland at UFC on Versus 5 last August as well as earning a decision over Ian Loveland at UFC 128 in his UFC debut.
Urushitani is the only fighter of the four not to have faced Cruz, so maybe this is a good thing for the Japanese fighter. The 35-year old has won five straight which includes capturing the Shooto bantamweight (123 lb) title back in May 2010. That was Urushitani’s third attempt at winning the Shooto title and it was his first successful attempt. He had his last fight in July, earning a second round TKO victory over Yuki Shoujou at the Tokyo show.