On November 7th. – Elevation Fight Team mainstay, Drew Dober clashes with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu player, Diego Ferreira in an eye-catching contender pairing – a matchup the former has had his eye on for some time now.
Riding a three-fight rise, Dober has scored three high-profile knockout wins on the trot. Returning to winning ways in June last year, the former welterweight stopped Marco Polo Reyes with strikes. Dober then finished uber-prospect, Nasrat Haqparast in the opening round at UFC 246 in January. Cracking the official lightweight top-fifteen – Dober picked up a second-round knockout over Alexander ‘The Great’ Hernandez, his tenth professional stoppage via strikes.
In his above-mentioned appearance at UFC 246 in January, Dober shared the card with Diego Ferreira, who earned the #8 rank at 155-pounds with a second-round rear-naked choke victory over former WEC and UFC lightweight best, Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis. Speaking with Jordan Ellis from LowKick MMA – Dober explained how he’s had his sights set on the Brazilian ever since that January 18th. night.
“I mean, right now I’m ecstatic,” Dober said when asked about his Fight Night date with Ferreira. “Trying to finish off the year in the top-ten so next year I can have those top-five fights, main events and all that stuff – man that’s incredibly fun. I’ve been thinking about Diego this entire year when he choked out Anthony Pettis on the same card that I fought Nasrat (Haqparast).
“I was like, ‘Alright he’s the guy I’d love to fight’, and we tried to fight him on May 2nd. – I’ve had my eyes on him this entire year. It’s quite satisfying that we finally get this going and on November 7th. – hopefully, we both get in the cage.“
Tasked with mitigating a 3rd. degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt who has scored seven submission successes, Dober, who’s found himself on the wrong end of three stoppage losses via submission, has sights set on a knockout win of his own, in a pretty classic grappler versus striker pairing.
“I’d love a knockout. I’d love, you know – put my hands on him, put a good series (punches) together and just repeating what I’ve been doing in my last three fights,” Dober explained.
Fortis MMA staple, Ferreira is somewhat of a dark horse at 155-pounds with six consecutive victories since his 2015 knockout loss to former interim champion, Dustin Poirier, and if Dober can get his hand raised in November – it’s most certainly onwards and upwards for the 31-year-old.