10 Fights Official for ‘Liddell vs. Franklin’

Patrick Barry will collide with 2006 Pride Fighting Championships open weight grand prix winner Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in a featured heavyweight bout at UFC 115 “Liddell vs. Franklin” on June 12 at the GM Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Ten fights are now official for the event.

Once a dominant force in the heavyweight division, Filipovic has faded in recent years but still remains a formidable foe. The 35-year-old Croatian has posted three wins in four fights, including a one-sided second-round technical knockout against Anthony Perosh at UFC 110 in Australia two months ago. Twenty of Filipovic’s 26 career victories have come by knockout or TKO. His list of victims includes former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett, UFC hall of famer Mark Coleman, 1992 Olympic gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida and Brazilian icon Wanderlei Silva.

Barry, a protégé of former world kickboxing champion Duke Roufus, has yet to go the distance as a professional mixed martial artist. The 30-year-old New Orleans native stopped Antoni Hardonk on second-round punches at UFC 104 in October.

A pair of world-ranked welterweights will have the UFC 115 spotlight on them, as once-beaten Brazilian Paulo Thiago locks horns with Martin Kampmann.

Thiago will carry a two-fight winning streak into the match. The 29-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has secured eight of his 13 career wins by submission. Victories over American Kickboxing Academy thoroughbreds Josh Koscheck and Mike Swick have thrust Thiago, a special operations police officer in Brazil, into title contention.

Based at Xtreme Couture Mixed Martial Arts in Las Vegas, Kampmann last appeared in January, when he submitted Jacob Volkmann with a second-round guillotine choke at UFC 108. It was his third victory in four fights. The 27-year-old former Cage Warriors middleweight champion has never been submitted in 19 professional bouts.

Meanwhile, former World Extreme Cagefighting welterweight champion Carlos Condit will hit the cage for the first time since September when he faces off with unbeaten Canadian Rory MacDonald.

Condit was scheduled to take on British striker Paul Daley in January, but a freak hand injury nixed the matchup and put his career in jeopardy. The 25-year-old Albuquerque, N.M., native has posted nine wins in 10 fights and holds notable victories over former Icon Sport middleweight champion Frank Trigg, Minnesota Martial Arts Academy veteran Brock Larson and the surging Jake Ellenberger. A potent finisher, 23 of Condit’s 24 career wins have come by knockout, technical knockout or submission.

Spawned by the Toshida Martial Arts gym in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, MacDonald has finished all 10 of his opponents as a professional. The 20-year-old former King of the Cage lightweight champion dazzled in his promotional debut three months ago, as he submitted Michael Guymon with a first-round armbar at UFC Fight Night 20 in Fairfax, Va.

UFC 115 will also feature a teammate-versus-teammate lightweight encounter between Xtreme Couture stablemates Tyson Griffin and Evan Dunham.

Griffin, 25, has lost two only two men -- current lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and former lightweight titleholder Sean Sherk -- as a professional. The Sacramento, Calif., native has not set foot inside the Octagon since he stopped Hermes Franca on second-round strikes at UFC 103 in September. In 16 career bouts, Griffin has never been finished.

The undefeated Dunham has delivered six of his 10 victories by submission. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, the 28-year-old Eugene, Ore., native submitted “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 8 winner Efrain Escudero at UFC Fight Night 20 in January.

A lightweight match pitting “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 6 winner Mac Danzig against Matt Wiman and a heavyweight tilt between Ben Rothwell and Gilbert Yvel will anchor the UFC 115 undercard. In addition, the event will host welterweight matchups pairing “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 9 winner James Wilks with Peter Sobotta, Claude Patrick with Ricardo Funch and Mike Pyle with Jesse Lennox.