Some Thanksgiving fight announcements. Happy
Thanksgiving everybody! pic.twitter.com/wNDkaxQ0nB— danawhite (@danawhite)
November 23, 2023
Jalin
Turner will be stepping in for the man who last beat him in a
bit over a week.
At UFC 290 in July, Turner (13-7) fell short in a thrilling
nailbiter by split decision to Hooker. The Kiwi, who was scheduled
to take on Bobby Green
(31-14-1, 1 NC) at
UFC Austin, has since
injured his arm and has withdrawn from the Green pairing. The
damage was inflicted to the same arm that Hooker hurt in his fight
with Turner. Now, Turner will be taking on Green on Dec. 2 at the
Moody Center in Austin, Texas, according to the promotion
on Thursday.
Making his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut in 2018
unsuccessfully against Vicente
Luque, the 6-foot-3 Turner dropped down to lightweight and has
competed in that weight class for the majority of his subsequent
matches. “The Tarantula” is currently skidding, having dropped two
split decisions to the aforementioned Turner and Mateusz
Gamrot in 2023. That loss to Gamrot put an end to a five-fight
finish streak for the California native, which saw him stop names
including Brad
Riddell and Jamie
Mullarkey as he worked his way up the lightweight ladder.
Company staple Green has rattled off two straight stoppage wins
since July, putting Tony
Ferguson to sleep with an arm-triangle choke at UFC 291 and
coming out blazing against Grant
Dawson in a 33-second knockout victory. At the tender age of
37, Green was attempting to engage in a rare five-round non-title
non-headlining match, but the change of opponent has shifted it to
a three-round affair. Green may be just a few wins over .500 in the
UFC as a longtime vet, but he has beaten names like Al Iaquinta,
Nasrat
Haqparast, Clay Guida and
James
Krause over the years.
UFC Austin, also known as UFC on ESPN 52, goes down in Austin,
Texas, inside of the Moody Center on Dec. 2. The main attraction
will see Beneil
Dariush tackle fellow grappler Arman
Tsarukyan in a pivotal lightweight affair. The co-main event
will be Turner vs. Green, despite the opponent change. Other fights
high on the billing include a bantamweight bash between Rob Font and
Deiveson
Figueiredo, and a welterweight clash when Sean Brady
meets Kelvin
Gastelum.