Nate Diaz agrees to fight Donald Cerrone at UFC 141

The UFC’s annual New Year’s Eve Weekend event appears to have had an instant “Fight of the Night” frontrunner added to its lineup in the form of Ultimate Fighter 5 winner Nate Diaz duking it out with the white hot, well-rounded Donald Cerrone.

Once officially signed, the match-up will add to a UFC 141 card headlined by former heavyweight champions Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem mixing it up with the winner a likely candidate to face whomever holds the belt next month after Cain Velasquez defends his title against Junior dos Santos on FOX.

News Cerrone’s clash with Diaz, only verbally agreed to at this point apparently, was first reported by MMAJunkie who said several sources had confirmed the information.

Though Diaz is only 9-5 in the Octagon, he has faced some of the best and displayed noticeable improvement in his recent return to the lightweight division where he submitted Takanori Gomi last month in the opening round of their fight at UFC 135. He also holds past wins at 155 pounds over Kurt Pellegrino, Josh Neer, and Melvin Guillard.

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Cerrone, who fought on the same UFC 137 card as Diaz’s older brother (Nick Diaz) over the weekend where he defeated Dennis Siver in the first frame, will be looking for a rare fifth straight win inside the Octagon during a single year, and fourth in the last six months, when he dances with Diaz on December 30.

UFC 141 is also expected to feature Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks and Jake Ellenberger vs. Diego Sanchez.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC