Ricardo Almeida vs. Kendall Grove On Tap For UFC 101

It didn’t take long for the UFC to let Ricardo Almeida know that they didn’t approve of his plans to drop down to welterweight.

FightHype.com is reporting that while nothing is official, Almeida will face Kendall Grove at UFC 101 which is scheduled for August 8th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Almeida recently made known his desire to drop down to 170 known after defeating Matt Horwich via unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 18 last week. Almeida is 2-1 since returning to action after an almost four year layoff. He has defeated Rob Yundt along with Horwich and lost a unanimous decision to Patrick Cote at UFC 86 which cost him a shot at the middleweight title.

Grove is riding a two fight win streak which includes a split decision victory over the late Evan Tanner at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 7 in June of last year and a resounding 1st round TKO over Canadian Jason Day at UFC 96 in March. That victory came on the heels of UFC president Dana White declaring that the fight with Day may be a make or break situation for the Hawaiian fighter.

UFC 101 will feature a lightweight title match between number one contender Kenny Florian and champion B.J. Penn.

Former light heavyweight champion, Forest Griffin, will be making his return to the octagon for the first time since losing the title to Rashad Evans at UFC 92 when he takes on hard hitting Brazilian, Thiago Silva.

Also rumored for the card is a light heavyweight bout between Brandon Vera and Matt Hammil.

The UFC has added some east coast fighters to the mix as they come back east for the first time since UFC 78 which took place in November of 2007 from Newark, NJ. New Jersey native Kurt Pelligrino will take on Josh Neer and New York college student, Tamdan McCrory, will face off with John Howard.