UFC 154 Update: Chad Griggs to Make 205-Pound Debut Against Cyrille Diabate

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A light heavyweight showdown between Chad Griggs and Cyrille Diabate is slated for UFC 154, promotion officials announced Wednesday morning.

UFC 154 takes place Nov. 17 at Bell Centre in Montreal and is headlined by a welterweight title unification bout between returning champion Georges St. Pierre and interim titlist Carlos Condit.

A former IFL and Strikeforce heavyweight talent, Griggs made his UFC debut in April, submitting to a Travis Browne arm-triangle choke at UFC 145. “The Grave Digger” was expected to make the drop to light heavyweight at August’s UFC on Fox 4, but an injury forced Griggs to withdraw from that booking against Phil Davis. The 34-year-old was perfect in his Strikeforce career prior to setting foot in the Octagon, finishing Bobby Lashley, Gian Villante and Valentijn Overeem during his time with the promotion.

Diabate was previously slated to face hard-punching Brazilian Fabio Maldonado, but that pairing was scrapped after Maldonado was plucked from the contest in order to replace an injured Quinton Jackson against Glover Teixeira at UFC 153. Diabate, 39, has posted a 3-2 record in the UFC, alternating wins and losses since his 2010 promotional debut. The Frenchman owns Octagon wins over Luiz Cane, Steve Cantwell and Tom DeBlass, defeating the latter in his most recent outing on April 14 at UFC on Fuel TV 2.