(Nope. Not fuckin’ with that guy.)
A potential heavyweight slugfest and a duel between two lightweights who need to get back to their winning ways have both been reported for UFC 166, taking place October 19th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Gabriel Gonzaga, fresh off of an obliteration of Dave Herman at UFC 162 earlier this month, meets “The Savage” Shawn Jordan in a fight sure to end with someone on the canvas before the end of the third round. Gonzaga, the man responsible for Mirko Cro Cop’s downfall — and we’ll never forgive him for it, that son-of-a-bitch — looks to keep climbing back into the title mix, six years after his unsuccessful challenge against Randy Couture back at UFC 74. This will be Gonzaga’s seventeenth appearance in the Octagon over the course of eight years.
Meanwhile, Jordan is riding a two-fight win streak with stoppages over Mike Russow and most recently fan-favorite Pat Barry at UFC 161 in Winnipeg (which took him one second short of a minute). Both men have a combined amount of 1:16 cage-time spent in their last Octagon outings. That’s just how heavyweights roll, my dudes.
Also on the card…
KJ Noons, who is in desperate need of a win after dropping his last three, faces Australia’s George Sotiropoulos, who’s also dropped his last three and needs a win just as bad. Sotiropoulos has not fought since his TKO loss to Ross Pearson last December after their coaching stint on TUF: The Smashes. Noons was on the losing end of a questionable decision against Ryan Couture at Strikeforce’s swan song earlier this year but was thoroughly outmatched by Donald Cerrone in his Octagon debut at UFC 160. Noons has earned only one win in his last six fights.
It hasn’t been confirmed if these bouts will take place on the main card or the televised preliminary portion of the event. Headlining UFC 166 is the much-anticipated rubber match for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, between champion Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos. Also on the card is a grudge match between Roy Nelson and Daniel Cormier, alongside a scrap for the ages featuring Gilbert Melendez and Diego Sanchez, and the recently announced Tim Boetsch vs. Luke Rockhold.