NICK DIAZ
BATTLES ‘THE NATURAL BORN KILLER’ CARLOS CONDIT ON FEBRUARY 4 IN LAS VEGAS FOR
INTERM UFC® WELTERWEIGHT TITLE
PLUS, JOSH KOSCHECK
vs. MIKE PIERCE Y ERIK KOCH vs.
DUSTIN POIRIER
UFC®
143: DIAZ vs. CONDIT
Saturday, Feb.
4, 2012
From Mandalay
Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
Live on
Pay-Per-View at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT
TICKETS ON SALE
TOMORROW
FRIDAY, DEC. 16
– 10 A.M. PT
Las
Vegas, Nev. (USA) –
The Ultimate Fighting Championship® announced today that two of the
sport’s top welterweight contenders will vie for the interim 170-pound title.
Nick Diaz, a fiery and unpredictable southpaw riding an 11-fight win streak,
will battle the division’s most fearsome knockout artist, Carlos Condit, when
the UFC returns to the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday,
Feb. 4.
“With
GSP out for 10 months, we are going to have Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit fight
to crown an interim welterweight champion,” UFC President Dana White said. “I’ve
had my differences with Nick, but he is a fighter through and through. The one
thing I can guarantee is that come fight night, he is going to throw down. We
all saw that in his last performance against BJ Penn. Carlos Condit is no
different. He’s knocked out his last three opponents and believes he is the
best fighter in the division. I get goose bumps just thinking about this
fight!”
Additional
fights scheduled for this event include: welterweight bad boy Josh Koscheck vs.
powerful wrestler Mike Pierce, as well as a pivotal featherweight bout pitting
Erik “New Breed” Koch vs. Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier.
Tickets for UFC®143: DIAZ vs. CONDIT,
presented by BUD LIGHT®, go on sale
TOMORROW, Friday, Dec. 16 at 10 a.m. PT and are priced at $750, $500, $350,
$225, $125 and $75. Tickets will be available at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster
locations (select Smith’s Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino). Ticket sales
are limited to eight (8) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit
card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for
purchase at www.mandalaybay.com or www.ticketmaster.com. Ticket prices do
not include applicable service charges.
A special Internet ticket pre-sale is available NOW to UFC
newsletter subscribers. To access this presale, users must register for the UFC
newsletter through UFC.com.
UFC®143: DIAZ vs. CONDIT will be
available live on Pay-Per-View at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on UFC.TV, iN DEMAND,
DirecTV, DISH Network, Avail-TVN, BellTV, Shaw Communications, Sasktel, and
Viewer’s Choice Canada for a suggested retail price of $44.99 US/$49.99 CAN for
Standard Definition and $54.99 US/$59.99 CAN for High Definition.
Official UFC VIP packages are
also available at http://vip.ufc.com.
These packages include tickets to UFC 143, official event merchandise, as well
as special VIP experiences with backstage tours and meet and greets with top
UFC stars. Get closer to the action than ever before with this unique UFC VIP
opportunity.
During his reign as STRIKEFORCE welterweight champion, Nick Diaz (fighting out of Stockton,
Calif.) defeated archrival KJ Noons and finished both
Evangelista Santos and Paul Daley en route to becoming the organization’s
best 170-pound fighter. Returning to the UFC with his destruction of Penn last
October, Diaz - whose brother Nate is also a UFC competitor – looks to knock
off Condit and secure his first UFC world title.
“I wanted to fight Georges St-Pierre and I still want that
fight when Georges comes back,” Diaz, who owns a record of 27-7, 1 NC, said.
“Right now, I’m focused on beating Carlos Condit. He’s tough and he’s knocked a
lot of guys out, but that doesn’t concern me. I know I’m a better fighter in
all areas. I’m gonna win that belt on February 4.”
Nicknamed “The Natural Born Killer,” Carlos Condit (fighting out
of Albuquerque, N.M.)
is a 27-year-old former WEC champion with four straight
wins, three of which came by way of knockout. A pupil of renowned trainer Greg
Jackson, Condit (27-5) now has the chance to fulfill a lifelong goal of winning
the UFC welterweight title. He’s also motivated by the chance to fight one of
the sport’s top pound-for-pound best.
“Ever since I began my career in mixed martial arts, it has
been my goal to be a UFC champion,” Condit said. “Upon hearing the news that I
would be fighting for the interim welterweight title, I cannot begin to
describe the mix of emotion that came over me. I am thankful to have such an
opportunity. This will be the biggest fight of my career and I am ready to show
that I am deserving of it.
“Nick is a great fighter,” Condit added. “He’s also a hungry and motivated
fighter. Both of us want to be the champion more than anyone could imagine. I
look forward to training for the challenges that he will present in the Octagon.
We both have aggressive styles, and that should provide for an entertaining
fight for both the UFC and the fans.”
An elite competitor who has fought some of the division’s
toughest names, Josh Koscheck
(fighting out of Fresno, Calif.) is fresh off a knockout victory over
UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes in September. A member of the renowned American
Kickboxing Academy and a former NCAA Division I national champion wrestler,
“Kos” now turns his attention to ending the rise of Mike Pierce (fighting out of
Vancouver, Wash.). Having won four of his last five fights, Pierce
(13-4) is a hard-charging wrestler known for his ferocious ground and pound. He
looks for the biggest win of his career when he meets Koscheck (18-5) on
February 4.
A pupil of renowned striking coach Duke Roufus, Erik Koch (fighting out of
Milwaukee, Wisc.) has made an immediate impact since joining the UFC
earlier this year, knocking out Raphael Assuncao in March and besting The
Ultimate Fighter® season 12 winner Jonathan Brookins
in September. To earn a crack at the featherweight title, the 23-year-old Koch
(13-1) must defeat another surging prospect in 22-year-old Dustin Poirier (fighting out
of Lafayette, La.).
With a perfect 3-0 mark since dropping to featherweight at
the start of 2011, the gritty Poirier (11-1) has impressed many thanks to
decision victories over Josh Grispi and Jason Young, as well as a dynamic
submission win over Pablo Garza in November at UFC® on FOX.
Eyeing his own shot at the 145-pound crown, Poirier is gearing up for what
should be an incredible bout with Koch at Mandalay Bay.
Additional bouts will be
announced at UFC.com in the weeks to come. All bouts live and subject to
change.
For more information, or current
UFC fight news, visit UFC.com.
About Ultimate Fighting Championship®
Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las
Vegas, Nev., UFC® is the world’s premier MMA organization and
produces over 12 UFC live Pay-Per-View events annually around the globe.
In 2012, FOX will broadcast four fights annually. In spring 2012, The
Ultimate Fighter®, UFC’s signature weekly reality TV show,
debuts on FX. UFC content is also distributed commercially to bars and
restaurants through Joe Hand Promotions in the U.S. Globally, UFC programming
is broadcast in over 149 countries and territories, reaching a half a billion
homes worldwide, in 20 different languages.
UFC® also boasts a powerful presence online, with
UFC.com attracting over seven million unique visitors per month, while also
possessing one of the most powerful social media followings in all of
professional sports. To date, UFC has over six million fans on Facebook and
over 400,000 followers on Twitter. In addition, UFC President Dana White
is one of the most accessible and most followed executives in sports with more
than 1.7 million followers on Twitter. On January 22, 2011, UFC continued
to set trends in social media, becoming the first major sports league to stream
live, broadcast quality action on Facebook.
Ancillary businesses include best-selling DVDs, a magazine,
the best-selling UFC “Undisputed” videogame franchise distributed by THQ, UFC
GYM®, UFC Fight Club affinity program, UFC Fan Expo® festivals,
branded apparel, trading cards, and articulated action figures.