Former UFC fighter Ricardo Almeida will serve as one of the judges at UFC on FOX 3 next week, Sherdog.com confirmed the news with the New Jersey State Athletic Control board.



According to the report, Almeida will be one of three judges assigned to score Josh Koscheck vs. Johny Hendricks, Pat Barry vs. Lavar Johnson, Nick Denis vs. Roland Delorme, John Hathaway vs. Pascal Krauss, John Dodson vs. Tim Elliott and Tony Ferguson vs. Michael Johnson.



Almeida retired from the sport in March 2011, and shortly thereafter, announced that he would start judging fights in New Jersey.



And since judging has become such a hot topic in MMA lately, both Hendricks and Koscheck were happy to hear that a former UFC fighter would be working their fight.



"I think that's cool because he's going to know a little bit more about the sport and he's going to know what positions really mean," Hendricks said on a Thursday conference call. "He'll know when a strike actually lands. I think that's what we need is some people like that stepping in there and start doing that kind of stuff because they know what it's like to jump in the cage. They know what's like to do all this stuff. I think he'll be a great judge."



Koscheck added that he expects more retired fighters to become judges in the future.



"I think it's good for the sport," Koscheck said. "It gets a perspective of a fighter, someone who's been in the Octagon and knows Jiu-Jitsu and knows wrestling and understands this sport. I think that as this sport grows we're going to see more ex-UFC fighters become judges, so I think it's a good start."



Almeida isn't the first former fighter to become a judge, but he's arguably the most well-known example. At UFC on FOX 3 on May 5, he'll get a big stage to hopefully inspire future retired fighters to do the same.