In a little more than a month, Diego Sanchez will lock horns with Joe Stevenson in the UFC 95 main event on Feb. 21 at the O2 Arena in London. Spike TV will air the event on same-day tape delay at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

The eccentric Sanchez (19-2) will venture into lightweight waters for the first time inside the Octagon at UFC 95. He has not fought since June, when he stopped American Top Team’s Luigi Fioravanti on third-round strikes at “The Ultimate Fighter 7” Finale in Las Vegas. A former protégé of Greg Jackson, the 27-year-old Sanchez has posted back-to-back wins since his split decision defeat to Jon Fitch at UFC 76. He has never been finished in 21 professional bouts.

Stevenson (29-9), meanwhile, will enter the cage in desperate need of a victory, as he has dropped two of his past three fights. He last appeared in November, when he succumbed to Kenny Florian’s rear-naked choke at UFC 91. The end came 4:03 into round one, as Florian launched himself into title contention. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Stevenson holds submission wins against Melvin Guillard, Dokonjonosuke Mishima and Gleison Tibau.

Top middleweights also have a place in the UFC 95 spotlight, as former title challenger Nate Marquardt will square off with American Top Team’s Wilson Gouveia in a key bout at 185 pounds.

Marquardt (27-8-2) has posted eight wins in 10 fights, losing only to reigning middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Brazilian Thales Leites in that span. The 29-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt last competed at UFC 88 in September, as he dominated Martin Kampmann en route to a first-round stoppage in Atlanta. Marquardt has finished 20 of his 27 wins, 15 of them by submission.

Talented but inconsistent, Gouveia (12-5), a former light heavyweight, failed to make weight for his match with Jason MacDonald at “The Ultimate Fighter 8” Finale in December. Nevertheless, he stopped the Canadian with first-round elbows and notched his second win in as many fights. Gouveia remains the only man with a knockout victory against Fitch.

Other intriguing matchups at UFC 95 include a middleweight showdown pairing Chael Sonnen with unbeaten Demian Maia, a welterweight battle matching Josh Koscheck with newcomer Paulo Thiago and a heavyweight fight pitting Stefan Struve against Junior dos Santos.

St. Pierre-Penn hype begins

The buildup for the upcoming fight between lightweight champion B.J. Penn and welterweight kingpin Georges St. Pierre begins this Wednesday with the premiere of “UFC Primetime,” a three-part Spike TV series that will take fans behind the scenes of the epic showdown. The program will air at 10 p.m. ET/PT on three consecutive Wednesdays.

Penn will challenge St. Pierre for the welterweight crown at UFC 94 on Jan. 31 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The popular French Canadian beat Penn by split decision at UFC 58 in March 2006; they have since become two of the top five pound-for-pound mixed martial artists in the world.

“Primetime” breaks with tradition from the typical “UFC Countdown” shows that air on Spike TV in advance of select pay-per-views. The three episodes will be filmed as close to their air date as possible, giving fans a more current view of where each fighter stands.