Canadian light heavyweight, and the current Maximum Fighting Championship champion, Ryan ‘Big Deal’ Jimmo (16-1) is set for his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut with today’s announcement.
…And at light heavyweight, Ryan “Big Deal” Jimmo will look to extend his 16-fight win streak in his UFC debut against Czech powerhouse Karlos Vemola.
Jimmo and ‘The Terminator’ Vemola (8-2) have agreed to meet at the upcoming UFC on FX 1 (aka UFC Fight Night 26 & UFC Fight Night: Guillard vs. Miller) in the new year.
UFC on FX is set to take place on January 20th at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. The main card will air on FX while the prelim card is expected to stream live at FOX.com.
Jimmo has won sixteen straight since losing his first pro bout back in 2007. Under the MFC banner, the light heavyweight has won seven in a row, with six decision victories and one TKO stoppage. He earned the MFC title earlier this year by defeating Dwayne Lewis at MFC 28 last February. The Canadian has since gone on to defend his title twice, earning unanimous decisions over Zak Cummings and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou.
Vemola is 1-2 in the UFC having dropped to 205 lbs for his last two matches. He won his light heavyweight debut by stopping Seth Petruzelli at UFC 122 last year but lost a unanimous decision to Ronny Markes at the UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle event in August. He had been scheduled to fight twice more in 2011, first at UFC 128 versus Luiz Cane, and then against Stephan Bonnar at UFC on Versus 5, but injuries would force ‘The Terminator’ off of both cards.
Vemola has drawn a tough opponent in the fact that Jimmo isn’t one to mix it up and prefers to keep his distance from opponents, similar to Lyoto Machida. Jimmo’s last fight was not an impressive performance by any means, but I expect fans will get a chance to see “The Robot” at the end of this fight.