Around MMA: Marquardt Vs. Johnson, Diaz Signs To Box, Who Is In/Who is out

Added on Apr 14, 2011 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

Marquardt Vs. Johnson

UFC.com is reporting that Nate Marquardt and Anthony Johnson have verbally agreed to fight at the UFC on Versus on June 26 in Pittsburgh. The shocking part of this match up is that Marquardt will be making his welterweight debut in the UFC, and many people fell Nate might be biting off more then he could chew with the weight cut. After running into road block after road block at middleweight, Dana White is saying he plans on making a run at the welterweight title. White said “Anthony Johnson has always been one of the largest welterweights in the UFC but now former top middleweight contender Nate Marquardt will drop down and attempt a run at the welterweight title. Both of these guys are powerful strikers and grapplers and it should be a great fight.”

Nick Diaz Signs Boxing Bout Agreement

After a tremendous performance and title defense against Paul Daley, and making about $175k for the fight, Nick Diaz and Coach Caesar Gracie are saying he may be leaving mixed martial arts. In the video below, Nick questions his future in the sport on MMA, and Gracie states that Nick has already sign a bout agreement for a boxing match. The proposed opponent is Fernando Vargas, and while Nick’s contract says he can fight outside of Strikeforce, the contingency is that he has to get approval from Strikeforce. With Guffaw now at the helm of Strikeforce, it is unclear on how Zuffa will respond to this, and it will be interesting to see what happens next. The video is courtesy of HD.Net , and Inside MMA.