The Weekly Wrap: March 7 - March 13

Odds and Ends

• Nathan Diaz and Joe Stevenson have agreed to meet on a June 20 “UFC Fight Night” card on Spike TV, which will also include the finale fights for season nine of “The Ultimate Fighter,” according to several sources. The battle of former Ultimate Fighter winners is Stevenson’s third straight main event despite losing his last two fights. The bout joins the previously reported main event offering between lightweights Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida.

Another Ultimate Fighter champion, season eight lightweight winner Efrain Escudero, pulled out of his April 1 fight with Jeremy Stephens this week due to a rib injury. Stephens will now face Gleison Tibau on the show, which may move a bout between Tyson Griffin and Raphael Dos Anjos to the main card. The show, from Nashville, Tenn., is headlined by Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann and will serve as a lead-in to the premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter 9.”

In other Ultimate Fighter news, Spike TV this week announced the cast for season nine of the program, which pits a U.S. team coached by Dan Henderson against a U.K. team coached by Michael Bisping. The show will feature welterweights and lightweights.

At welterweight, Team USA will feature International Fight League veteran Mark Miller, Ryan Biglar, Ray Elbe, Christian Fulgium, Damarques Johnson, Kevin Knabjian, Jason Pierce and Kiel Reid. Team U.K. will feature Dean Amasinger, James Bateman, David Faulkner, Tommy Maguire, Che Mills, Nicholas Osipczak, Alex Reid and James Wilks.

At lightweight, Team USA will feature UFC veteran Jason Dent, Paul Bird, Santino Defranco, Cameron Dollar, Tom Hayden, Waylon Lowe, Josh Souder and Richie Whitson. Team U.K. will feature James Bryan, Dan James, Gary Kelly, Jeff Lawson, Ross Pearson, Martin Stapleton, AJ Wenn and Andre Winner.

• B.J. Penn filed a formal complaint with the Nevada State Athletic Commission this week over the controversial circumstances surrounding his Jan. 31 loss to Georges St. Pierre. The complaint is significant because it sets in motion a process that could theoretically result in the commission changing the bout’s result to “no contest.” St. Pierre defeated Penn via TKO between the fourth and final round after Penn’s corner called off the fight.

Penn’s camp has alleged St. Pierre had Vaseline improperly applied to his shoulders and back in between rounds, stifling Penn’s jiu-jitsu game. His camp has already requested a commission investigation of the fight, which resulted in three St. Pierre cornermen submitting written statements about what happened that night. All concluded that any Vaseline that may have touched St. Pierre’s back was inconsequential and not applied deliberately.

According to excerpts from Penn’s 20-page request that were reported by MMAWeekly.com, Penn alleges that St. Pierre ingested a substance before the fight that would cause his body to secrete and become unnaturally slippery during the course of the fight, a practice some fighters have said is common at the top level in MMA. The complaint also requests that the athletic commission fine St. Pierre and force him to submit to a monitored pre-fight shower or other cleansing.

• Bellator Fighting Championships, the new promotion that has a weekly television deal with ESPN Deportes starting April 4, announced further details about its upcoming slate of events. The promotion announced its April 11 event will take place at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut and its April 18 event will go down in Oklahoma.

The shows will feature several fights in multiple weight class tournaments, and the April 18 card, according to MMAJunkie.com, will feature the U.S. debut of Cuban judoka Hector Lombard, who has been courted by several promotions in the past year, including the UFC, but has yet to successfully obtain a working visa.

Bellator also announced this week that Ford has signed on as a sponsor of the ESPN Deportes show and will be the presenting sponsor for updates of the Bellator fights on Sportscenter. The company’s first show is April 3, airing on April 4.