It appears that TUF Smashes coach Ross Pearson will be staying at lightweight, and he’ll be introducing a Couture to the octagon. The UFC added a total of three bouts to the UFC on Fuel 9 card scheduled for April 6th in Stockholm, one of which is Pearson vs. ex-Strikeforce fighter Ryan Couture. The other two will see Matt Mitrione face off with Philip De Fries in a heavyweight battle, and TUF Smashes contestant Ben Alloway meeting Ryan LaFlare at welterweight.
Pearson (14-6) briefly went down to featherweight in 2012, but returned to lightweight after a 1-1 stint and defeated opposing coach George Sotiropoulos by TKO in December. Couture (6-1) had spent his entire career in Strikeforce before being brought over, and is coming off a close split-decision win over K.J. Noons at the final SF event last month.
Mitrione (5-2) will be looking to get back into the win column after consecutive losses to Cheick Kongo and Roy Nelson. De Fries (9-2) was stopped in the first round of last bout with Todd Duffee at UFC 155, and is 1-2 in the organization overall.
Alloway (13-3), a quarter-finalist on TUF Smashes, picked up a TKO win over Manuel Rodriguez at UFC on FX 6 in December in his official debut with the organization. LaFlare (7-0) has fought in local promotion Ring of Combat for his whole career thus far, and has finished all seven of his fights inside the distance. He returned from a 30-month layoff last month to pick a third round submission win.