Two lightweights on three-fight losing streaks have been pitted against each other for the UFC's return to Houston on October 19th. Strikeforce veteran K.J. Noons will fight TUF 6 alum and former top 10 lightweight George Sotiropoulos at UFC 166 in Houston. Australian newspaper The Age first reported the bout.
Noons (11-7) was a regular on Strikeforce cards, but his run with the promotion ended on a sour note with a loss to Josh Thomson and a widely disputed split decision loss to Ryan Couture. He was still given a UFC contract despite those defeats, but Donald Cerrone made his UFC debut one to forget, dominating and battering his face over the course of 15 minutes at UFC 160.
Sotiropoulos (14-5) once rode a 5-0 lightweight record towards possible title contention, but the BJJ black belt was stifled and beaten up on the feet by Dennis Siver in front of a partisan Australian crowd at UFC 127. His glaring deficiencies in his striking defense have been further exposed in his knockout losses to Rafael dos Anjos and Ross Pearson, the latter of which capped off a stint on the Australia vs. UK version of TUF.
Takanori GomiUFC 166 is taking place on October 19th in Houston, Texas, with heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez fighting Junior dos Santos in their highly anticipated rubber match.
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