A pair of bantamweights coming off losses will meet in San Jose, Calif., looking to get back in the win column.
Former WEC 135-pound champion Miguel Torres and Nick Pace have verbally agreed to a fight at UFC 139 in November. Both ex-WEC fighters won their UFC debuts, but suffered setbacks in their second outings with the promotion.
Pace said on his Twitter account Friday that he was fighting Torres – but later removed the Tweet from his page. But early Saturday, sources close to the fight confirmed to MMA Fighting that the bout has been agreed to.
Torres (38-4, 1-1 UFC) lost a unanimous decision to Demetrious Johnson at UFC 130 in May – a fight most analysts and observers believe Torres won. That loss snapped a two-fight winning streak for Torres. But more importantly for Johnson, it got him a title shot against Dominick Cruz next week.
Torres went nearly six years without a loss, catapulting himself into the conversation of pound-for-pound top fighters in the world. But in his fourth defense of the WEC bantamweight title, he suffered the first knockout of his career, surrendering the belt to Brian Bowles at WEC 42. He followed that loss up with a submission to Joseph Benavidez – his first tapout loss. That defeat prompted him to change his training strategy, and rather than mostly training himself at his gym in Northwest Indiana, he moved his camps to the Tristar Gym in Montreal under the direction of Firas Zahabi.
Pace (6-2, 1-1 UFC) was the Ring of Combat bantamweight champ before signing with the WEC last year. His first loss under the Zuffa banner came to Johnson by unanimous decision. After a submission win over Will Campuzano at the TUF 12 Finale last December, Pace dropped a unanimous decision to Ivan Menjivar at UFC 133 in August.
UFC 139 was expected to feature a heavyweight title fight between champ Cain Velasquez, who trains in San Jose, and Junior dos Sanots. But that fight was moved to the UFC’s debut on the Fox network Nov. 12. Instead, Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson will return to the UFC and headline the event against former champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
Also on the card, Wanderlei Silva faces Cung Le in Le’s UFC debut. Former champs Urijah Faber and Bowles meet in a bantamweight bout. TUF 8 winner Ryan Bader faces Jason Brilz. And TUF 1 runner-up Stephan Bonnar meets Kyle Kingsbury.