Blooming lightweight submission guru George Sotiropoulos (10-2) will look to remain undefeated inside the Octagon when he takes on fellow Ultimate Fighter contestant Jason Dent (19-9) at UFC 106 inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Nov. 21.
Sotiropoulos returned to action at UFC 101 with a dominating submission win over George Roop. The former pupil of Matt Serra had been on the sidelines since April 2008 as a result of injuries that kept him out of action since a technical knockout win over fellow TUF contestant Roman Mitichyan at UFC Fight Night 13.
Sotiropoulos was among the pre-show favorites to win TUF 6 until the Australian was derailed by Tommy “The Farmboy” Speer in the semifinals. He bounced back to submit Billy Miles via rear naked choke at TUF 6 Finale in the first round back in December 2007.
He now looks to make it four straight under the Zuffa banner against the crafty Dent.
“Dynamite” is perhaps best known for sending Rob Browning — the foul-mouthed kid brother of TUF 8’s Junie Browning — back to the trailer park with an ass-kicking to close out episode three of season nine on the Spike TV reality show.
Despite getting booted from the competition with a unanimous decision loss to Ross Pearson, Dent returned at the June 20 TUF 9 Finale to choke out fellow castmate Cameron Dollar in the first round.
Dent actually had two prior appearances in the UFC coming into TUF 9. The first was a unanimous decision loss to Roger Huerta at UFC 63 followed by a unanimous decision loss to Gleison Tibau at UFC 68.
A win over Sotiropoulos would definitely raise his stock in the 155-pound division.
UFC 106 will feature a main event heavyweight title bout between two absolute monsters as champion Brock Lesnar will look to defend his gold for the second time against his newest challenger, Shane Carwin. “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz is also set to make his return to the Octagon against UFC Hall of Famer, Mark Coleman, after spending nearly a year and a half on the sidelines.
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