Dan Hardy celebrates his win over Duane Ludwig – Photo by Donald Miralle via UFC.com
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is set to return to the United Kingdom and has been busy booking fights for the upcoming Nottingham event with four matches announced on Wednesday.
A couple of charismatic welterweights meet as Dan ‘The Outlaw’ Hardy (24-10, 1NC) welcomes TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah (6-3) to his homeland. While Hardy’s last opponent, Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig (21-13) takes on Gloucester’s own ‘Beautiful’ Che Mills (14-5, 1NC) at 170-lbs.
Meanwhile lightweights Paul ‘Sassangle’ Sass (13-0), who looks to stay undefeated, takes on ‘Handsome’ Matt Wiman (14-6).
A pair of featherweights, Jason ‘Shotgun’ Young (9-5) and Roberto Peralta (15-3, 1NC) are also set to clash at the Nottingham event.
UFC on FUEL TV 5 is expected to take place on September 29, 2012 at Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, England.
Hardy recently ended a four fight losing streak in spectacular fashion last month. ‘The Outlaw’ was able to finish Duane Ludwig by knockout to earn his first victory since 2009, as well as a “Knockout of the Night” award. His opponent, Sadollah, is 1-1 in his last two and 3-1 in his last four. The former TUF 7 winner won a split decision at UFC on FUEL TV 3 last month, while losing to Ludwig by decision last summer.
For Ludwig, the loss to Hardy was his second in a row and now puts him 2-2 in his last four and 2-4 in his last six. The other loss for ‘Bang’ happened at UFC on FX 2 where he was choked out by Josh Neer in the first round. His last win was versus Sadollah last August. Mills is also looking for a win after his five fight win streak was stopped by welterweight phenom Rory MacDonald last April at UFC 145. Mills suffered a second round TKO defeat to the Canadian. ‘Beautiful’ earned his last victory versus Chris Cope at UFC 138 via TKO.
Sass hails from Liverpool, England and will not have to go far for this match putting the advantage squarely in his corner. The undefeated fighter looks to make it fifteen in a row and four straight in the Octagon. He recently finished Jacob Volkmann at UFC 146 in the first round with a triangle/armbar submission. Wiman earned his fourth “Fight of the Night” award with a decision victory versus Mac Danzig at UFC on Versus 6. ‘Handsome’ had been set to face Mark Bocek at UFC 145 but was forced out with an injury making this fight with Sass his first in 2012.
Another UK fighter, Young will look to win his second match inside the Octagon after his first victory in three tries last April in Sweden at UFC on FUEL TV 2. There Young was able to win a decision versus Eric Wisely ending a two fight losing skid. Young faces a tough challenge in Peralta who walks into the fight on a nine-bout undefeated streak. Peralta hasn’t competed since last November where he had a TKO win over Machens Semerzier changed to a “No Contest” at UFC on FOX 1 after it was determined that an accidental headbutt caused the fight to end prematurely. Peralta was set to rematch Semerzier at UFC on FX 2 but an injury forced the Brit out.