[EmpireWF]

UFC officially announced this evening that at the UFC 79 PPV next month, Matt Hughes will fight Georges St. Pierre for the interim welterweight championship. The fight will main event the card and is scheduled for five rounds.

Whenever reigning UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra is able to fight again, he will fight the interim champion to unify the title.

Serra injured his back during training on Monday and was forced to pull out of the fight. St. Pierre was considered the #1 contender (after Hughes) and was scheduled to fight the winner in the near future.

MMAJunkie said St. Pierre showed no hesitation in fighting at UFC 79.

Hughes and St. Pierre last fought at UFC 65 in November 2006. St. Pierre defeated Hughes for the Welterweight Championship via knockout in the 2nd round.

[Lefty Noob]

Interim champion, eh? That's a good idea. I like it. Does the UFC do this stuff often? And how do these two match-up?

[bears9]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

Interim champion, eh? That's a good idea. I like it. Does the UFC do this stuff often? And how do these two match-up?

At UFC 80 they will have an interim title fight for the light weight title, but that could be for the actuall belt if Sean Sherk loses his steroid appeal

[EmpireWF]

Some are criticizing the UFC because they don't like the use of interim belts.

This will be the 4th time UFC uses an interim championship.

1) 2003, Tito Ortiz was light heavyweight champion and had issues with management. He didn't fight so they made an interim title fight between Couture and Liddell. Couture won, then unified the belt against Tito months later.

2) 2004, Frank Mir as heavyweight champion was in a serious motorcycle accident and couldn't fight. In 2005, Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski fought for the interim title with Arlovski winning. Some months later, Mir was stripped of the belt.

3) UFC 80 will see the light weight interim belt be decided between Joe Stevenson and B.J. Penn. The real champion, Sean Sherk will either be stripped due to a drug test failure or will come back in several months and unify the belts.

[EmpireWF]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

And how do these two match-up?

This will be the rubber fight between the two former champions. Their first fight was at UFC 50 in 2004 for the vacant welterweight title. Hughes won via submission. Two years laterin 2006 at UFC 65, St. Pierre defeated Hughes (ending his amazing run with the title) via TKO.

It will be interesting to see how the two fighters come out of the gates. Hughes has been criticized recently for not having his mind focused on fighting. He's admitted on the Ultimate Fighter (although you never know about editing) that he only has a few fights left before he retires. St. Pierre was a nervous wreck before going out to fight Matt Serra in his first title defense.

It's a pretty equal match-up because both guys are amazing at what they do. Hughes, the powerful wrestler and St. Pierre, the jiu-jitsu guy. St. Pierre is considered by some to be the best pound for pound fighter in the world...despite his recent loss.