UFC welterweight menu begins to fill up as Condit-Woodley is added to UFC 171

TORONTO – Another chapter to the post-Georges St-Pierre welterweight story will be written at UFC 171, with No. 2 contender Carlos (The Natural Born Killer) Condit taking on Tyron (The Chosen One) Woodley.

The title recently vacated by St-Pierre will be on the line at the March 15 card in Dallas when No. 1 contender Johny (Bigg Rigg) Hendricks faces No. 3 (Ruthless) Robbie Lawler (22-9 with one no contest).

Hendricks (15-2) is coming off a controversial split decision loss to St-Pierre at UFC 167 last month.

The Condit-Woodley winner could become the next title contender.

The 170-pound championship has belonged to St-Pierre since he won it back from Matt (The Terror) Serra at UFC 83 in Montreal in April 2008.

St-Pierre (25-2) beat Condit at UFC 154 in November 2012. Condit (29-7) has beaten Martin (The Hitman) Kampmann and lost to Hendricks since then.

The Condit-Woodley announcement Tuesday means that seven of the UFC’s top 10 welterweights have fights scheduled.

Condit was due to meet No. 8 Matt (The Immortal) Brown last Saturday on a televised card in Sacramento but the fight was called off when Brown (20-11) was sidelined with a back injury.

The unranked Woodley had campaigned on Twitter to be Brown’s replacement.

Woodley (12-2) is coming off an impressive first-round TKO win over veteran Josh Koscheck. The 31-year-old from St Louis went 8-0 in Strikeforce before losing via fourth-round TKO to Nate (The Great) Marquardt in a title bout.

He opened his UFC account with a first-round stoppage of Jay Hieron before losing a close decision to Jake Shields.

Shields, ranked seventh among 170 pounders, is expected to meet Hector Lombard at UFC 171.

Montreal’s Rory MacDonald, ranked fourth, is to fight No. 6 Demian Maia at UFC UFC 170 on Feb. 22 in Las Vegas.

And No. 10 Tarec (Sponge) Saffiedine takes on Hyun Gyu Lim on a televised card Jan. 4 in Singapore.

The only ranked welterweights currently without fights are Brown, No. 5 Jake (The Juggernaut) Ellenberger and No. 9 Kampmann.

Other UFC welterweight matchups already announced include:

— Bobby Voelker versus William Macario and Siyar Bahadurzada versus John Howard at UFC 168, Dec. 28 in Las Vegas.

— Luiz Dutra versus Kiichi Kunimoto, Jan. 4 in Singapore

— Adlan Amagov versus Jason High, Jan. 15 in Atlanta.

— T.J. Waldburger versus Mike Pyle, UFC 170, Feb. 22 in Las Vegas.

— Alex Garcia versus Sean Spencer, UFC 171, March 15 in Dallas.

The highest-profile welterweight outside the FC is former Bellator champion Ben Askren (12-0), who recently signed with the Asian-based One FC promotion.