Former Sengoku lightweight champion Maximo Blanco (8-3-1, 1NC) will reportedly make his Octagon debut this coming April when he meets “TUF 14″ fighter Marcus ‘The Bama Beast’ Brimage (4-1) at the re-scheduled UFC 145 event.
News of the bout surfaced at MMAWeekly.com who confirmed the fight with sources close to the bout.
UFC 145 had originally been scheduled to take place on March 24 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec but a scheduling conflict forced the UFC to shift the event to the April 21 event at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
Blanco hails from Venezuela but was trained in Japan, having earned a wrestling scholarship in his youth. He would go on to fight for Pancrase and Sengoku, winning the King of Pancrase lightweight title in 2009. Blanco had earned six straights wins before coming over to North America where he faced Pat Healy in a lightweight bout at the Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov event. Healy was simply too big for Blanco and out muscled him to earn a second round submission. Blanco would then opt for a move to 145-lbs and would sign with the UFC.
Marcus was a member of Team Bisping on the most recent season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and would lose in to housemate Bryan Caraway in the quarter-finals. ‘The Bama Beast’ would then make his Octagon debut at the “TUF 14 Finale” earning a unanimous decision over castmate Stephan Bass. The bout was Marcus pro-debut as a featherweight. So far he has two wins by TKO and two by decision in his career dating back to March 2007.