The UFC’s return to Brooklyn, New York will feature Long Island’s Al Iaquinta on the card, as the lightweight contender has been booked to fight Paul Felder at UFC 223 on April 7th. FloCombat reported the news on Sunday, and MMA Fighting later confirmed the booking.
Iaquinta (13-3-1) returned from a two-year hiatus from the sport, with contract issues with the UFC at the forefront, and brutally knocked out Diego Sanchez at last April’s UFC Nashville. The Ultimate Fighter season 15 runner-up is on a five-fight winning streak, and was scheduled to face Felder at UFC 218 last month, but pulled out due to injury.
Felder (15-3) not only remained on UFC 218, he won in emphatic fashion by repeatedly elbowing Charles Oliveira for the second-round TKO victory. “The Irish Dragon” has won his last three bouts, all by KO or TKO, and all of them have included elbows in the finishing sequence. In the stacked lightweight division, while Iaquinta is ranked #11, Felder isn’t even in the UFC’s top-15.
UFC 223 does not yet have a main event. It marks the promotion’s second card in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, with their debut show taking place in February 2017 at UFC 208.
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