The January Brazil show is slowly filling up well in advance. A featherweight fight has been added to the fold, as Nova Uniao fighter Diego Nunes takes on Minnesota’s Nik Lentz. MMA Junkie and Portal do Vale Tudo have the scoop:
Diego Nunes (18-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) and Nik Lentz (24-5-2 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC) are set to meet when the UFC returns to Brazil.
Portal do Vale Tudo first reported the bout, though MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) could not immediately confirm the fight with the UFC.
Nunes is coming off a decision win over Bart Palaszewski, but has struggled to find consistency in the UFC, alternating wins and losses in all of his fights. His biggest fight was a loss to Kenny Florian, but he did knock Florian down twice. He’s gone the distance in 10 consecutive fights.
Lentz’s first televised fight was a stinker of a win against Andre Winner, and the UFC seemingly went out of its way to give him a loss by matching him up with Tyson Griffin, Waylon Lowe, Charles Oliveira, and most controversially a pack of rabid wolves. He avoided defeats in all of them, but he finally lost to Mark Bocek and then Evan Dunham. A drop to featherweight saw him dominate Eiji Mitsuoka via TKO in his last bout.
This is a great fight for a FUEL/FX/whatever this free card is going to be, and hopefully it ends up on the main card. That said, Nik Lentz has NEVER been on a UFC main card of any show. Let’s see if he can continue his almost impossibly long streak.