Two rising Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweights with
an eye on the top five will throw down in December.
The news broke on Thursday from
MMA Junkie that Matt
Schnell (16-6, 1 NC) will come to blows with Matheus
Nicolau (18-2-1) at the UFC
Fight Night event on Dec. 3. This fight card does not currently
have a destination on the books, nor a designation. Schnell
confirmed the existence of his upcoming bout on his Instagram on
Thursday morning. Other than Schnell-Nicolau, the only match booked
on the lineup is a flyweight contest between Amanda
Ribas and Tracy
Cortez.
Schnell put an end to a two-fight winless stretch with an
all-action thriller against Su Mudaerji
in July. In a comeback for the ages, Schnell survived a knockdown
and several bad spots to hurt Mudaerji and ultimately submit him
with a triangle choke. The two claimed “Fight of the Night” for
their scrap, and this put Schnell back on track and in the hunt for
contention. “Danger” has only gone the distance in 25% of his wins,
and his three triangle chokes in the UFC put him alone for the
second-most all-time, trailing only Paul Craig’s
four.
Brazil’s Nicolau surges into this contest on a five-fight win
streak, including three inside the Octagon by decision. His 2021
debut came against a dangerous Manel Kape,
and he escaped with a
contentious split decision. Subsequent three-round victories
over Tim
Elliott and David
Dvorak placed the 29-year-old from Belo Horizonte among the top
10 at flyweight. The finish rate for Nicolau is quite lower than
his opponent, with exactly 50% of his career victories ending
inside the distance.