With recent injuries to their respective featherweight opponents, Cub Swanson and Manny Gamburyan, both Erik Koch and Raphael Assuncao were without a date for their scheduled appearances at UFC on Versus 3 and UFC 128, respectively.
It's times like these that matchmaker Joe Silva just has it too easy.
MMAWeekly brings word that Koch and Assuncao are simply going to be paired off against one another on March 19 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
That's just two weeks after Koch's initial scheduling of March 3 in Kentucky, surely not a big enough wrinkle to cause any problems for the 22 year-old, fresh off his devastating head kick knockout win back in November of last year.
That fight earned him the prestigious "Knockout of the Night" award in his final WEC bout. Can he replicate that in his UFC debut?
Raphael Assuncao began his career in 2004 and was a dominant machine for the next five years, winning 14 of his first 15 fights. And then the WEC needed a scrappy fighter that would provide a tough test for Urijah Faber and guess who drew the short stick?
A submission loss to the "California Kid" would be followed by a split decision defeat at the hands of Diego Nunes. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist may have saved his job in his next fight when he took a decision from LC Davis at WEC 52.
If he loses his UFC debut though, will they keep him around much longer?
UFC 128 is set to feature light heavyweight kingpin Mauricio "Shogun" Rua defending his 205-pound strap against up-and-coming phenom Jon "Bones" Jones.
Urijah Faber vs Eddie Wineland and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Brendan Schaub are also set for the card.
No comments:
Post a Comment