Virginia is for Fighters - UFC Fight Night 20 Officially Announced for Monday 1/11/10

The UFC and Spike TV have officially announced that UFC FIGHT NIGHT 20: MAYNARD VS. DIAZ will be held Monday January 11, 2010 at the Patriot Center on the George Mason University campus in Fairfax, Virginia. The main card will air live on Spike TV. This is the first UFC Fight Night event that will be held on a Monday night. No doubt the WWE, whose flagship RAW program airs on Monday nights on the USA network and formerly aired on Spike TV, will see this as a sign of war and attempt some sort of big-event counterprogramming. The WWE has already been getting antsy in their concerns that they may be losing some of their key demographics to the world of cage fighting.

UFC Fight Night 20 will be headlined by Gray Maynard vs Nate Diaz. Nate Diaz is the winner of the fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter. The 16-man TUF 5 lightweight tournament also featured Gray Maynard. Diaz and Maynard fought in the semi-finals, which aired on the final regular season episode of the show, and Diaz won by submission in the second round. Diaz advanced to the finals, where he defeated Manny Gamburyan to become the TUF 5 champion in June 2007 live on Spike TV.

After the TUF 5 championship fight, Nate Diaz continued on a 5-fight winning streak in the UFC, until losing a split decision to Clay Guida in January 2009. Five months later, Diaz again lost a decision, this time it was unanimous to Joe Stevenson at the TUF 9 Finale. Diaz rebounded with a quick submission win over Melvin Guillard in the main event of UFC Fight Night 19, which was his last fight in the octagon.

Gray Maynard is undefeated in regular MMA competition and has won 6 straight fights in the UFC. His UFC debut resulted in a no contest in a bout where he and Rob Emerson seemingly lost at the same exact time -- Maynard knocked himself out while slamming Emerson, who was tapping to due rib injuries. Maynard has since beaten Joe Veres, Dennis Siver, Frankie Edgar, Rich Clementi, Jim Miller and Roger Huerta. A win over Nate Diaz could propel Maynard into UFC Lightweight Championship contention against the winner of the upcoming UFC 107 title fight between B.J. Penn and Diego Sanchez.

The co-main event will feature a battle of undefeated fighters, as Efrain Escudero and Evan Dunham will square off to see whose 'O' has got to go. Like Nick Diaz, Escudero is a TUF lightweight champion, winning the eight season of the show live on Spike TV over Phillipe Nover in December 2008. After suffering setbacks due to injury, Escudero returned to the octagon at UFC 103, in September 2009, and scored a TKO win over Cole Miller in the first round of their fight.

Evan Dunham has three less wins than Escudero, but is undefeated just the same, and also has 2 UFC wins. Dunham debuted at UFC 95 with a TKO win over Per Eklund in February 2009, and followed it up 6 months later with a split decision win over veteran fighter Marcus Aurelio. Dunham trains out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Complete Fight Card After the Break

UFC FIGHT NIGHT: MAYNARD VS. DIAZ

MAIN CARD

Nate Diaz (11-4) vs. Gray Maynard (8-0)

Evan Dunham (9-0) vs. Efrain Escudero (12-0)

Tom Lawlor (6-1) vs. Aaron Simpson (6-0)

Mike Guymon (11-2) vs. Rory MacDonald (9-0)

PRELIMINARY BOUTS

Chris Leben (18-7) vs. Jay Silva (5-2)

Jesse Lennox (11-1) vs. Rick Story (8-3)

Nik Lentz (17-3) vs. Jeremy Stephens (16-5)

Kyle Bradley (14-6) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (12-4)

Tim Credeur (12-3) vs. Mike Massenzio (11-3)

Nick Catone (7-2) vs. Steve Steinbeiss (4-3)