UFC lightweight veterans Ross Pearson and James Krause are set to fight each other at The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale on Friday, July 8th.
The UFC has added multiple fights to the TUF 23 Finale, which will occur the night before UFC 200. Of the new additions to the card, the biggest matchup is a lightweight battle between TUF 9 winner Ross Pearson and James Krause. The main card airs live on Fox Sports 1 on Friday, July 8th.
Pearson (19-10, 1 NC) won an entertaining split decision over Chad Laprise at UFC Brisbane last month. Dating back to his highly controversial (AKA: completely incorrect) split decision loss vs. Diego Sanchez, the Englishman has kept a holding pattern of alternating losses with wins over his last 8 fights. This will be Pearson’s 3rd fight of 2016, with his first one ending in a decision defeat to Francisco Trinaldo.
Krause (23-7) has won two in a row, including an impressive unanimous decision victory over Shane Campbell at UFC Pittsburgh on February 21st. The 29-year-old is 3-3 in the UFC, with his most notable win coming in his debut at UFC 161 in Winnipeg, where he submitted Sam Stout in the closing seconds of round 3 to win Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night honors. Krause also holds a rear-naked choke victory over the recently released Daron Cruickshank.
Also on tap for the TUF 23 Finale is a middleweight fight between Scott Askham (14-2) and Anthony Smith (25-11), plus welterweights Anton Tabuena Anton Zafir (7-2) and Li Jingliang (10-4). FS1’s UFC Tonight reported all three of these bouts on Wednesday night’s broadcast.
Askham scored a sensational head kick KO win over Chris Dempsey at UFC London, while Smith edged out Leonardo Guimaraes at UFC Pittsburgh. Zafir suffered a spinning backfist knockout loss in his short-notice debut against James Moontasri, while Li suffered a dramatic 3rd round submission defeat to Keita Nakamura at UFC Japan last September.
The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale is headlined by a UFC women’s strawweight title fight between reigning champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha. Jedrzejczyk defeated Gadelha by split decision in a non-title fight back in 2014, and both women are the head coaches for this season of TUF, which premieres on April 20th on Fox Sports 1.