A middleweight bout appears all but set between UFC veterans Johny Hendricks (9-1) and Paulo Thiago (13-3) for the upcoming UFC on Versus 3 (aka UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann) show in march.
MMAjunkie.com reported the news Thursday evening, citing a source close to the event and noting that both fighters have verbally agreed to the match.
Thiago lost his last two fights, coincidentally to the two fighters headlining the Versus event in Diego Sanchez and Martin Kampmann. He lost to Sanchez last October at UFC 121, winning the “Fight of the Night” bonus, while losing to Kampmann at UFC 115 in June. Both defeats were by unanimous decision and likely mean the Brazilian is in a must win situation to keep his job with the UFC.
Hendricks suffered his first loss last December to Rick Story at the “TUF 12 Finale” by unanimous decision. The loss ended a nine fight win streak including five in the UFC. In 2010 he earned victories over Charlie Brenneman at UFC 117 by TKO and TJ Grant at UFC 113 by majority decision.
The UFC on Versus 3 (aka UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann) is slotted for March 3rd at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.