Georges St. Pierre will defend his welterweight title against Jon Fitch in the main event of UFC 87 in Minneapolis on Aug. 9, the UFC announced Thursday.
The card was slated to feature Minnesota resident Brock Lesnar against Hall of Famer Mark (The Hammer) Coleman but a knee injury has forced Coleman out. The UFC said a replacement opponent for Lesnar will be named later.
The Target Center bout will be St. Pierre's first since he regained the title with a stoppage of Matt Serra at UFC 83 last month in Montreal. Fitch has won eight straight fights in the UFC, the longest current winning streak in the organization.
"He's a very, very tough guy," St. Pierre (16-2) said in a statement. "I'm going to have to train hard and be very well-prepared because he may be my toughest fight yet."
St. Pierre trainer Greg Jackson agrees that Fitch will be a handful.
"It's going to be a real challenge, to fight a guy with those kind of credentials," Jackson said in an interview Thursday.
Fitch (22-2-1) is a former collegiate wrestler at Purdue who is coming off a win over Chris Wilson at UFC 82.
"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," Fitch said in a statement. "If I have the belt, there's no excuse, and if you say you're the best, then we're going to fight.
"This is going to 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."
The UFC 87 card also features a lightweight bout between contenders Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta.
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B.J. Penn may have his mind on defending his lightweight title against Sean Sherk at UFC 84 on Saturday night, but the Hawaiian fighter also has an eye on welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre down the line.
The Montreal fighter won a split decision over Penn in the 170-pound welterweight class at UFC 58 in March 2006.
Asked if he wanted a rematch with St. Pierre, Penn laughed and replied "What do you think? Yeah for sure. Get it on and see if people buy the pay-per-view."
Penn still remembers the Canadian fans at their fight in Las Vegas, saying they did a lot for the GSP cause.
"You know what I think helped him was he had such big support with the Canadian fans there, that whenever he got a takedown they all screamed and made a lot of big noise," said Penn, who is currently campaigning at 155 pounds. "I think that really helped him on the judging for that part. I think I hurt him more than he hurt me, but I mean who's to say?
"That's why it's hard, three people (judges) sitting outside the fight and they're going to say who won the fight. It's just a tough thing to do. But did I feel like he hurt me in that fight at any time? No."
Asked what he thought of GSP's win over Matt Serra last month in Montreal to regain the welterweight title, Penn offered only compliments.
"I thought he was very impressive, I thought he looked good."
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