The UFC continues to find the best prospects in Europe. The do so slowly, often grabbing guys flying under the radar, but the fighters they find often appear to be very solid prospects. Such is the case with Piotr Hallmann. Nicknamed "The Whale" (possibly for his secondary career as a Polish Naval officer) Hallmann is currently on a nine fight win streak, with eight of those wins coming by stoppage. Globo initially reported the fight announcement.
As a fighter Hallmann exhibits an evolving Muay Thai game. He's an inside striker, most comfortable working in the clinch with a brutal arsenal of knees. On the outside he has fast hands and a developing tool bag of strikes, but is a bit hittable, especially early in fights. Fortunately he's not just a one-dimensional fighter and has a decent takedown offense with a very strong top ground and pound and submission game. He's adept not just at shooting in and mixing takedowns, but at changing angles and grips on failed attempts to chain his takedowns, a very good skill for someone hoping to make a run at the top level. At only 25 with a 13-1 record and a diverse set of tools he has everything he needs to stick around whether at lightweight, or more probably featherweight.
And of course there's the rub, at only 5'9" he's not a small Lightweight, but he's not big either. And he's about to get a very real idea of what a big lightweight is in his UFC debut against 155 lb wrecking machine Francisco Trinaldo. "Massarunduba" is a beast at lightweight, and while his principal ability is his brute strength he mixes it nicely with devastating ground and pound and a power takedown and submission game. Hallmann is a good prospect, but he may end up being measured by whether he survives this fight or not and can then drop to 145.
UFC Fight Night 28: Teixeira vs. Bader takes place on September 4, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The card looks about full, so I'm not sure there will be any more fight announcements, but there will almost certainly be changes as the card draws nearer. Stay tuned for updates, and check out the current lineup here.
Here's a short documentary about his recent fight with Vaso Bakocevic for the WFC lightweight title: