UFC 111 Preview: Casual Fan-Friendly Battles Fill Spike TV's Free Preliminary Broadcast

As an ongoing project by the UFC and Spike TV to increase buy rates for pay-per-view cards, Spike TV will be featuring a live broadcast of two undercard battles that take place in the UFC's welterweight division. There is also the possibility that some of the other preliminary bouts could make the broadcast as well, so make sure you tune in on Saturday night at 9:00 PM EST, one hour before the pay-per-view event, to watch these great fights.

The first match-up on the live broadcast of the UFC 111 preliminary card on SpikeTV will feature Cesar Gracie jiu-jitsu fighter and The Ultimate Fighter season 5 winner Nate Diaz (11-5, 6-3 UFC) moving up to the welterweight division to battle heavy-handed striker Rory Markham (16-5, 1-1 UFC). Diaz is coming off a split decision loss to lightweight prospect Gray Maynard at UFN 20 while Markham was knocked out by Dan Hardy at UFC 95. Markham did pull out of a scheduled UFC 108 bout against Martin Kampmann due to a knee injury, making this his first bout back after over a year layoff.

Diaz's complaints about opponents "hugging" him and  "not wanting to fight" frustrated him in his last few losses, but he also stated that the cut to 155 pounds has been a bit rough. Following his loss to Maynard, he told media that he'd be willing to move between the weight classes, and this creates some interesting cross weight class match-ups for him as he's a lengthy fighter with decent boxing and solid grappling skills.

His first test in the division should please him as Rory Markham is mostly known for being a heavy-handed knockout fighter who can throw devastating head kicks and overhands. Markham isn't the type of fighter that will constantly work for takedowns, and his grappling is sub-par in comparison to Diaz's grappling acumen.

Unfortunately, we're talking about a Diaz brother here. While this fight seems like an obvious win for Diaz if he can put Markham on his back, the Diaz brothers are notorious for their stubborn ways. Although, some fans would say their stubborn ways are exactly the reason why they love the Diaz brothers so much. 

Markham doesn't present a huge challenge here, but he does possess explosive knockout power. If he can catch Nate, it'll be over pretty quickly, but he'll have to wade through Nate's long limbs in order to do that. Diaz will likely use his length to pepper Markham, but I see this eventually hitting the ground and Diaz running a clinic on Markham with his long limbs. I'll take Nate Diaz via submission.

One of the more intriguing battles on the UFC 111 fight card is the welterweight clash between The Ultimate Fighter season 7 alum Matt Brown (11-7, 4-1 UFC) and former King of Pancrase and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Ricardo Almeida (11-3, 4-3 UFC). Brown is currently riding a three-fight win streak with wins over Ryan Thomas, Pete Sell, and James Wilks while Almeida is two wins into a streak with victories over Kendall Grove and Matt Horwich. While most fans feel Almeida's history would convey a message that he should be the much better fighter in this bout, Brown's improvements over the last two years can't be ignored.

Almeida's past is definitely something to be considered when looking at his potential as a fighter in the UFC. He is the former middleweight King of Pancrase as he made a run for the title back in 2002-2003. Impressive victories over Kazuo Misaki and current UFC fighter Nate Marquardt have fueled speculation that Almeida may someday return to form as he took off nearly four years from active competition to open a gym, suffered a debilitating sports hernia injury after his loss to Patrick Cote, and tore his MCL in the lead-up to fighting Jon Fitch.

While the time away from the sport and the subsequent draw back into it may take some time to get Almeida back up to speed, he is at the ripe age of 33 years old. Time is against him at this point, but Almeida is making changes to become a much more dangerous fighter.

UFC 111 will be Almeida's debut at welterweight, so the same questions arise as with any other fighter cutting weight for the first time to a specific weight class. As we saw with James Irvin on Saturday night, it isn't always a good thing. Will Almeida be drained and gassed during his battle with Matt Brown? It's certainly something to ponder and watch at the weigh-ins. Almeida has stated that he successfully cut from 192 to 173 once already, so at the very least -- he has an idea of what to expect come fight time.

Unfortunately for Almeida, he won't have a lot of time to relax in a fight with Matt Brown. Brown has shown a lot of aggression in his battles as he's pressed the pace, thrown good power in his strikes, and managed to keep his legs underneath him. Brown doesn't have impressive takedown defense however, so he'll want to keep this fight standing while landing some hard shots to Almeida's chin early in this fight.

Brown's aggression could ultimately be his Achilles' heel. Coming forward against a guy who thrives on taking you down and controlling your position in hopes of seeing an opening to submit you is probably not the type of gameplan you'd want to implement. Unfortunately, it seems like that's the only gameplan Brown brings to the table. I'll take Almeida via submission in this fight, but Brown has the grit and heart to be a spoiler here.