Bouts Announced for UFC 100

The UFC announced three headlining bouts Wednesday for its landmark UFC 100 event on July 11 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

UFC welterweight king Georges St. Pierre will make his third title defense against American Top Team’s Thiago Alves; heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and interim champion Frank Mir will meet in a title unification rematch; and “The Ultimate Fighter 9” coaches Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping will clash in a middleweight matchup.

St. Pierre (18-2) defeated UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn in their Jan. 31 rematch at UFC 94, stopping the vaunted Hawaiian between the fourth and fifth rounds.

Alves, 25, has established himself as one of the welterweight division’s most deadly strikers. He has won seven in a row, including commanding victories over former champion Matt Hughes and top-10 contender Josh Koscheck in 2008.

Heavyweights Lesnar and Mir were originally scheduled to face off at UFC 98 on May 23 in Las Vegas, but Mir withdrew from the bout to recover from knee surgery.

The hulking Lesnar (3-1) toppled former champion Randy Couture with a second-round technical knockout at UFC 91 last November to seize the title in only his fourth career bout.

Mir, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, stopped former Pride champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with strikes in the second round at UFC 92 in December to earn the interim gold. Mir submitted Lesnar with a kneebar in 90 seconds during their first encounter at UFC 81 in February 2008.

Coaches Bisping and Henderson will culminate the ninth season of Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter” in the Octagon at UFC 100. Bisping (17-1), who coaches a U.K. squad of hopefuls on the series, has amassed a 3-0 record since moving down to the middleweight division, including victories over Jason Day and former TUF alum Chris Leben.

Henderson (27-4) eked out a split decision over Rich Franklin to cinch up his coaching position on the show. He leads a team of U.S. fighters vying against their U.K. counterparts for a UFC contract. A two-time Greco-Roman wrestling Olympian, Henderson is the only fighter to hold two divisional titles simultaneously in a major promotion.