A day after the Ultimate Fighting Championship resigned former heavyweight title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga, the promotion has announced that another former fighter will be returning to the fold at the promotions upcoming Rio de Janeiro event.
Brazilian welterweight Ricardo ‘Golden Boy’ Funch (8-2) was announced as the replacement for an injured Paulo Thiago, who withdrew from a bout versus Mike Pyle (21-8-1) at UFC 142 due to an elbow injury suffered while training.
Funch will now meet Pyle at UFC 142: Aldo vs. Mendes which is scheduled to happen on January 14th at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Thiago vs. Pyle match was to have aired on the main card, but this fight between Funch vs. Pyle will likely be bumped down to the prelim card.
Funch was released from the UFC after going 0-2, losing to Claude Patrick at UFC 115 in June 2010. ‘Golden Boy’ debuted against Johny Hendricks at UFC 107, dropping that match via decision. Since those two Octagon appearances, Funch had an eighteen month layoff fighting just once, winning a unanimous decision earlier this month at a Premier FC event in Massachusetts.
Pyle had a three fight win streak snapped by Rory MacDonald this past August, losing via first round TKO at UFC 133. ‘Quicksand’ had built up wins over Ricardo Almeida, John Hathaway, and Jesse Lennox in that span. In the Octagon, Pyle is 4-3 overall since he debuted at UFC 98 in May 2009.
Unless Funch has taken the eighteen months to really focus on his training, I don’t see him beating Pyle in this contest. ‘Quicksand’ has already beat the guy who beat the ‘Golden Boy’ and carries almost three times the experience fighting than his opponent does.