(Ben Saunders’s clinch: Not where you want to be. Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

According to MMA Weekly, welterweight contenders Martin Kampmann and Ben Saunders have agreed to meet at UFC 111 (March 27th, Newark). Both fighters recently bounced back to the win column after suffering knockouts in previous fights: Kampmann scored a first-round submission over Jacob Volkmann earlier this month after getting smoked by Paul Daley at UFC 103, while Saunders is coming off his first-round knockout of Marcus Davis at UFC 106, after being on the wrong end of a TKO against Mike Swick in June. UFC 111 will be headlined by the championship doubleheader of Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy and Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin. In other UFC fight-booking news…

— Speaking of Marcus Davis, the Irish Hand Grenade will look to snap his two-fight losing streak at UFC 113 (May 1st, Montreal) against Canadian welterweight Jonathan Goulet, who returns to the Octagon for the first time since his 33-second knockout loss to Mike Swick at Fight for the Troops in December 2008.

(Oh. Snap. Image courtesy of twitter.com/johnhowardufc)

— As first mentioned on John "Doomsday" Howard‘s Twitter page, a scrap between Howard and frequent eye-poke recipient Anthony "Rumble" Johnson is nearly set for UFC Fight Night 21 (March 21st, Denver), which will be the UFC’s first broadcast on the Versus network. According to an MMA Junkie report, the matchup was originally planned for last June at the TUF 9 finale, but Howard’s management reportedly turned it down because they didn’t want Doomsday facing such a tough test so early in his career; Johnson has since publicly criticized Howard for the ducking. Howard (13-4) is currently 3-0 in the UFC, and most recently scored a last-second knockout over Dennis Hallman at the TUF 10 finale in December. Johnson (8-3, 5-3 UFC) had a three-fight win streak snapped in November when he was submitted by Josh Koscheck at UFC 106.

— Speaking of welterweights, Ricardo Almeida and Matt Brown are set to get it on at UFC 111 (March 27th, Newark). Following back-to-back decision victories over Matt Horwich and Kendall Grove, Almeida was slated to take on Jon Fitch at 106, but had to withdraw due to a knee injury. He’ll now face off against "The Immortal," who has stopped his last three opponents, most recently TUF 9 winner James Wilks at UFC 105.

(From left to right: Focused, calm, stoic, and sleepy.)

To the unfamiliar, the above poster simply shows four shirtless white guys with eerily similar expressions. To us, it’s cause for celebration. As previously reported, UFC 111 (March 27, Newark) will be the first UFC event since #100 to feature two separate title fights on the same card; coincidentally, Georges St. Pierre and Frank Mir were part of that event as well. Tickets go on sale to Fight Club members this Thursday, newsletter subscribers on Friday, and to the general public on Saturday.

In a related story, Brock Lesnar‘s health status will be updated this week, which means we’ll soon find out whether he’ll be coming back this summer to fight the winner of Mir/Carwin, or if his career will be on ice for even longer — like, permanently. So basically, here are the possibilities we’re looking at, from most atractive to least attractive:

What do you do when you have two guys who can’t win big fights but who always put on entertaining matches? Throw ‘em in a cage together and hope for a Fight of the Night, obviously. According to MMA Mania, Phil Baroni and Marcus Davis have verbally agreed to whip the New Jersey crowd into a frenzy at UFC 111 (March 27th, Newark), supporting a card that will feature Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy and (hopefully) Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin.

After nearly five years away from the UFC, Phil Baroni returned to the Octagon at UFC 106 last month to take on TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah. Baroni came out strong in the first round, but his familiar struggles with cardio cursed him once again, and Sadollah dominated the last two rounds en route to a unanimous decision. Marcus Davis is currently on a two-fight losing streak, dropping matches to Dan Hardy (via split-decision at UFC 99) and Ben Saunders (via Thai clinch execution at UFC 106).

As a more well-rounded fighter with a much better gas tank, Davis should be a strong favorite to win this one. The question is, will Baroni be cut after losing another match, or will the UFC keep him around a while longer for their further amusement?

Update: Baroni tells MMA Weekly that he has not agreed to the fight, and may take a longer hiatus to re-evaluate his training methods.

("Why does this happen every time I drink tequila?")

With Brock Lesnar’s return date still uncertain, it looks like the UFC will dust off their interim heavyweight title for one more ride. Multiple sources report that a fight between Frank Mir and Shane Carwin is in the works for UFC 111 (March 27th, Newark), with the winner earning the UFC’s interim belt. Both fighters have been very open to the bout; Carwin recently wrote on his blog that Mir "is a LEGEND of the sport and I would be honored to fight him," while Mir described a potential fight against Carwin as a "phenomenal matchup," and Carwin as "a better version" of Brock Lesnar. Well Merry Christmas, boys, because you got your wish.

Though Mir was already mentally preparing for a future clash with a heavy-handed powerhouse wrestler, Carwin must now start game-planning for a submission expert with rapidly-improving boxing skills. Carwin also has ring-rust working against him. An entire year will have passed since his last appaearance against Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 96; Mir has fought twice in that period, and his confidence-boosting choke-out of Cheick Kongo at UFC 107 will be fresh in his mind. Is the Engineer of Pain fighting an uphill battle here, or will Mir just be a speed-bump on Carwin’s path to the title?

UFC 111 is scheduled to be headlined by the welterweight title fight between Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy, and will also feature the return of Thiago Alves.

(For reference: St. Pierre vs. Serra 1, UFC 69, 4/7/07.)

From an interview with #1 welterweight contender Dan Hardy on Sherdog:

(Don’t worry, buddy, Cory Booker has done wonders with the murder rate.)

If MMA Fanhouse is to be believed, Georges St. Pierre‘s next welterweight title defense against Dan Hardy won’t go down in Canada, Las Vegas, or the U.K. According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the scrap will instead go down in March at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. It would be the UFC’s first visit to Jerz since UFC 78. Fanhouse offers the only possible explanation:

Following UFC 105, Hardy told reporters "I’ll fight [GSP] in Canada, in Vegas, in the U.K., on the moon, in a phone box on the corner, in the car park. As long as he brings his belt along for me to take off, I don’t really mind. This is a great opportunity and I’ll fight him anywhere." He then added, "Well, anywhere but Newark, obviously. Good Lord, man, have you seen that place?"*

* Clarification: Hardy didn’t actually say this last bit. Our apologies to any Brick City residents who took this seriously…