Talented French muay-thai specialist, Cyrille “The Snake” Diabate has signed with the UFC and will face Luiz Cane in a light heavyweight tilt at UFC 113 in Montreal. MMAFighting.com (formerly Fanhouse) has the scoop:
The French 36-year-old fighter has signed a four-fight deal with the organization, MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani has learned from Diabate’s agent Ken Pavia.
“The Snake,” who is 15-6-1 in his MMA career, has agreed to fight Luiz Cane at UFC 113 in Montreal for his UFC debut.
Diabate is no stranger to the UFC as he was the striking coach for Dan Henderson’s team on the U.S. vs. U.K. season of The Ultimate Fighter. Using his lanky frame to build a very solid ground game as well, Diabate has five submissions among his fifteen career victories. Riding a five-fight winning streak, Diabate last competed in December when he choked out Rob Smith at “TPF 2 – Brawl in the Hall”. Diabate is based at his own gym (Snake Team) in France, but he does spend a fair amount of time training at Team Quest when in the U.S.
Luiz Cane was thought to be a serious title contender at 205 lbs before he ran into the debuting Antonio Rogerio Nogueira who knocked “Banha” out at UFC 106. Looking to regain his previous form, Cane will be competing in Montreal for the second time in his UFC career, after winning a unanimous decision over Steve Cantwell there at UFC 97.
UPDATE: MMA Junkie is reporting that his fight will go down at UFC 114 in Las Vegas, not 113.