Excitement will be on the menu for this upcoming
Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight tilt.
The city of Dallas is expected to play host to UFC 277,
a pay-per-view card that will go on at the end of July. Joining the
loaded lineup is a fight at 155 pounds, as first reported by
Ariel
Helwani on Thursday, between Diego
Ferreira (17-5) and Drakkar
Klose (12-2-1). The pairing has since been confirmed by Klose
on his Instagram
account.
At 37 years of age, Ferreira has fallen on hard times of late,
losing three straight fights during a disappointing 2021 run. A
split decision defeat to Beneil
Dariush, in a rematch of their 2014 meeting, started the skid
that included stoppage setbacks to Gregor
Gillespie and Mateusz
Gamrot. In the latter, Ferreira became the first and only
competitor inside the Octagon to tap to strikes that year.
Klose bounced back from the first stoppage loss in his career by
taking over two years away from the sport. This layoff did include
significant injury sustained by a weigh-in shove from Jeremy
Stephens that damaged the Michigan native’s neck. After his
lengthy recovery process, Klose came back in April to knock
Brandon
Jenkins out early into the second round, and thereby earned his
first finish as a UFC fighter.
UFC 277 goes down on July 30 in Dallas, but there is currently no
specific venue on the books. The headliner is not certain either,
although the rematch between Julianna
Pena and Amanda
Nunes at 135 pounds is being discussed as an option for the
fight card. One title fight is already booked on the lineup, as
Brandon
Moreno will vie for the interim flyweight strap against Kai
Kara-France. Other bouts including Paulo Costa
vs. Luke
Rockhold at middleweight, Magomed
Ankalaev and Anthony
Smith tangling at light heavyweight and a heavyweight content
between Derrick
Lewis and Sergei
Pavlovich populate a growingly solid event.