A bantamweight fight featuring two men who both have only one career loss, T.J. Dillashaw vs. Mike Easton, was verbally agreed to for the UFC on FOX 5 show on Dec. 8 in Seattle according to an announcement by UFC.
The fight would likely take place on the three-hour Fuel prelims, although that has not been made official. The show, headlined by Benson Henderson defending the lightweight title against Nate Diaz, will take place before what is already almost a sold out Key Arena.
The 26-year-old Dillashaw (6-1) was a Division I wrestler at Cal State Fullerton and at one time was ranked as high as No. 10 in the nation at 133 pounds as a senior in the 2008 season. He was the favorite of many to win the season 14 tournament of The Ultimate Fighter. After winning three fights, which are not on his record since they were two-round bouts, he suffered his only career loss, seemingly being surprised by the speed of now No. 1 contender John Dodson, with a TKO defeat at 1:54.
The Team Alpha Male product rebounded with two wins so far this year, a one-sided decision of Walel Watson and a quick submission over Vaughan Lee.
Easton (13-1), nicknamed “The Hulk,” has been fighting professionally for nearly ten years, mostly on smaller Northeastern shows including being one of the most popular fighters for the Ultimate Warrior Challenge out of Fairfax, Va. He held the bantamweight championship with the promotion when being signed by UFC. He debuted on a Spike show on Oct. 1, 2011, held in Washington, D.C. as a local favorite. He’s now 3-0 in UFC competition, coming off a win over veteran Ivan Menjivar at UFC 148 on July 7 in Las Vegas.
The Team Lloyd Irvin fighter’s lone career loss came in a 2007 bout when his corner stopped it due to his suffering a broken arm against Reynaldo Duarte. He’s working on an eight-fight win streak, the last three of which were in UFC competition. He has a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under Irvin, as well as a Tae Kwon Do black belt.
The winner of the fight would have a good argument to be positioned in the bottom half of the UFC’s top ten in the division.