Brock Larson

(Photo courtesy of Newsday.)

— TUF 3 finalist Ed Herman, who broke a two-fight skid in April with a unanimous decision win over David Loiseau, has been tapped to replace James "Job" Irvin against Wilson Gouveia at UFC 102, according to Sherdog. Irvin was forced to withdraw from the fight this week due to yet another serious knee injury. Herman was previously scheduled to face Aaron Simpson at UFC Fight Night 19 (September 16th, Oklahoma City).

— UFC 104 (October 24th, Los Angeles) will reportedly host a lightweight battle between Joe Stevenson and Spencer Fisher. "Joe Daddy" broke a two-fight losing streak of his own when he scored a decision win over Nate Diaz at the TUF 9 finale in June. Fisher is riding a three fight win-streak and most recently outpointed Caol Uno at UFC 99. The match will likely be on the main card, supporting the light-heavyweight title fight between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

(Kaplan/Roop is easily going to be Fight of the Night. And Dana went to MIT. Photo courtesy of this set on CombatLifestyle.com)

Spoilers after the jump...

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Chris Wilson's month just went from incredibly awful to unbelievably terrible. As if getting home-invaded and robbed of all his valuables by Brazilian marauders wasn't bad enough, the Team Quest welterweight now can't even earn the money to replace what he lost. Bad, bad tidings from his blog:

The UFC has released the finalized lineup and bout order for UFC Fight Night 18, which will go down April 1st at the Sommet Center in Nashville. Leading up to the main event between the WEC's final welterweight champion Carlos Condit (who has won his last eight fights) and Martin Kampmann (who is 5-1 in the UFC) will be three televised bouts featuring alumni from The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir — all of whom are undefeated in their professional careers.

Lightweight winner Efrain Escudero (11-0) will take on the heavy-handed Jeremy Stephens (14-4), who's coming off a submission loss to Joe Lauzon at Fight Night 17 earlier this month. The infamous Junie Browning (3-0) will get a big step up in competition when he faces ATT submission specialist and TUF 5 alum Cole Miller (14-3). And in the light-heavyweight division, TUF 8's 205-pound winner Ryan Bader (8-0) will welcome Carmelo Marrero (10-2) back to the Octagon. The official lineup is below:

MAIN CARD
Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann (WW)
Efrain Escudero vs. Jeremy Stephens (LW)
Ryan Bader vs. Carmelo Marrero (LHW)
Junie Browning vs. Cole Miller (LW)

(No man has seen Xavier Foupa-Pokam's real face and lived.) 

— As previously rumored, WEC welterweight champ Carlos Condit has signed on to face Martin Kampmann in the main event of UFC Fight Night 18 (April 1st, Nashville). Brock Larson, who Condit was originally scheduled to face in a title defense at WEC 39, will also be competing on the Fight Night 18 card, likely against UFC newcomer Jesse Sanders. Larson has fought twice in the UFC, losing a decision to Jon Fitch in 2005, and winning a decision over Keita Nakamura in 2006.

— Denis Kang, who took an upset loss to Alan Belcher in his Octagon debut at UFC 93, will try to redeem himself in front of his fellow Canadians at UFC 97 (April 18th, Montreal). Kang will be taking on Xavier "Professor X" Foupa-Pokam, a French Cage Rage/Palace Fighting Championships vet and UFC first-timer who has won his last seven fights by stoppage. 

— Undefeated TUF 6 standout Ben Saunders has been forced to drop off the UFC 96 card due to a foot injury, and has been replaced by Tamdan McCrory. Saunders was originally supposed to face welterweight submission specialist Dustin Hazelett — who most recently submitted McCrory via armbar at UFC 91 — until Hazelett dropped off the card with an undisclosed injury and was replaced by 5-0 prospect Ryan Madigan. So now we've gone from Saunders vs. Hazelett to McCrory vs. Madigan. The world is not fair.