Kris Karkoski at MMA Frenzy is reporting that a light heavyweight fight between submission specialist Eric "Red" Schafer and striker Tomasz "The Gorilla" Drwal has been signed for the TUF 9 Finale in June:
Light heavyweights Eric Schafer and Tomasz Drawl have signed contracts to fight at The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale on June 20th in Las Vegas.
MMAFrenzy.com learned of the 205-pound matchup on Sunday from a source close to one of the fighters.
Schafer (11-3-2, 3-2 UFC) is a BJJ black-belt who trains with Duke Roufus at his gym in Milwaukee, along with fellow UFC fighter Pat Barry. "Red" is on a 4-fight winning streak, with the most recent two of those coming within the UFC. After submitting Houston Alexander in September, Schafer took on striker Antonio Mendes at UFC 93 in Ireland where he pounded out the Brazilian with strikes from the mount in the first round, subsequently punching Mendes's ticket out of the UFC.
Tomasz Drwal (15-2, 1-1 UFC) is a heavy-handed Polish striker with considerable experience on the European MMA circuit. After being TKO'd by Thiago Silva in his UFC debut, Drwal rebounded at UFC 93 in January, brutalizing Ivan Serati on the feet en-route to a first-round knockout.
With 9 (T)KOs in 15 career victories, Drwal will be looking to pick apart Schafer on the feet, while the submission-savvy Wisconsin native will look for the takedown as quickly as possible, in what will be another stereotypical striker-versus-grappler clash at the Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas in June.
Also worth noting in regards to fight-booking, is the overall look of the card for the Finale event. The TUF 8 Finale in December had 10 fights, with only 2 of those bouts featuring non-TUF-8 fighters. The TUF 9 Finale currently has 9 rumored fights, with 7 of those featuring non-TUF-9 fighters.
Either the UFC plans on adding several more fights featuring fighters from the show, or the 9th season isn't producing many TV-ready fighters beyond the finalists.
The current TUF 9 Finale card now includes:
-TUF 9 Lightweight Finals
-TUF 9 Welterweight Finals
-Diego Sanchez (23-2) vs. Clay Guida (25-9)
-Joe Stevenson (31-10) vs. Nate Diaz (13-3)
-Eric Schafer (11-3-2) vs. Tomasz Drwal (15-2)
-Melvin Guillard (21-7-2) vs. Thiago Tavares (14-3)
-Anthony Johnson (7-2) vs. Matt Brown (11-8)
-Edgar Garcia (7-0) vs. Brad Blackburn (13-9-1)
-Kevin Burns (7-2) vs. Chris Lytle (28-17-5)




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