That now makes three Jungle Fight title holders the UFC has signed in the last month. Globo's Combate reports that the latest is the newly crowned lightweight champion Ivan Jorge (also known as Ivan "Batman") fresh off a submission victory over Lucio Abreu in June. Batman comes in as a replacement for Marcelo Guimaraes (himself the former Junglefight middleweight champion) in a welterweight contest against Keith Wisniewski at UFC Fight Night 28. No news of Guimaraes' injury as of yet.
Batman for his part, is a grappling specialist with an impressive 24-3 record and 12 submission victories. Like many Brazilian signees his resume is short on big names; a win over Daniel Acacio and a loss to Luis Santos being his two most notable opponents. At 32 he's not a young prospect and with a career stretching back to 2001 (although not in earnest until 2008) he's not fresh in the sport either. He'll have to make an impact quickly in this fight if he wants a long future in the division.
The biggest change for Wisniewski comes in the strengths of his opponents grappling. Guimaraes is a much larger, and more wrestling centric fighter, not especially well known for his submission acumen. While Batman may have a more difficult time taking him down, he'll be much more dangerous once the fight gets there. For a submission fighter like Wisneiwski, Batman may be exactly the type of guy to neutralize his game. Don't be surprised if we end up with a kickboxing match because of it.
UFC Fight night 28: Bader vs. Teixeira takes place on September 4 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Here's a look at Batman's title fight against Lucio Curado to get an idea of his skills before his UFC debut.
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