Nick Ring Vs Costa Philippou Promoted To UFC 154’s Main Card

A middleweight match-up between Nick Ring and Costa Philippou has been promoted to next month’s UFC 154 main card at the expense of Cyrille Diabate Vs Chad Griggs which slips back to the preliminary card on FX.

The move appears to have been prompted by complaints by fans who felt that Ring and Philippou had done more to earn the main card slot than Diabate and Griggs.

The stats do reflect that with Ring currently having a 3-1 record inside the Octagon while Philippou has built a solid four-fight winning streak over the past year and a half.

On the other hand, Diabate has a mixed 3-2 record and former Strikeforce fighter Griggs has moved down to light-heavyweight after a convincing loss to Travis Browne in his heavyweight debut earlier in the year.

So, it appears to be a sensible decision by the UFC to swap the fights around, though it’s probably fair to say that neither bout is likely to sway fans one way or the other when it comes to deciding whether to lay down their cash to purchase this pay-per-view event.

That decision will more likely be influenced by how much they want to see Georges St.Pierre, the promotion’s biggest draw, return to the Octagon after over a year out injured to fight Carlos Condit.

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