Title fight at Target Center: UFC 87 to feature GSP vs. Fitch

By Kevin Hoffman Thu., May 22 2008 at 7:24 PM

Categories: Ultimate Fighting

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After much speculation, the UFC has announced the match that will headline UFC 87 at the Target Center: a welterweight title fight between George St. Pierre and Jon Fitch, a wrestler with an eight-fight win streak.

“He’s a very, very tough guy,” said St-Pierre of Fitch. “I’m gonna have to train hard and be very well prepared because he may be my toughest fight yet.”

“The whole goal is to get the belt and be in the position where guys can’t duck me, run away, or say they don’t want to fight me,” said Fitch. “If I have the belt, there’s no excuse, and if you say you’re the best, then we’re gonna fight. This is gonna be a tough fight, but I’m gonna make sure I’m sharp that night, and wherever the fight needs to go, that’s fine with me.”

Unfortunately, today also brought news of another change on the card: Mark "The Hammer" Coleman is down with a knee injury, so Minnesota's own Brock Lesnar will face another opponent to be named shortly.

This is a tough one to replace: Coleman was almost tailor made for Brock, who still lacks serious jiu-jitsu and standup skills. I think a match with Cheick Kongo, who is similarly limited in his ground skills, could be a good one. Heath Herring is always game. I think Lesnar would be overmatched by Gabriel Gonzaga, who has a well-developed skillset. Andrei Arlovsky could be an interesting fight.

Then again, if they're looking for the opponent most similar to Coleman, it would be Dan Severn.

You can find the full list of UFC heavyweights here.

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