Nick Ring vs. Riki Fukuda Confirmed for UFC 127

Friday, December 24, 2010

By FCF Staff

Former “Ultimate Fighter” Season 11 competitor Nick Ring will make his official UFC debut against Deep middleweight champ Riki Fukuda, February 26th in Sydney, Australia.

Ring was the top pick in the eleventh season of the UFC’s reality program, but after defeating the show’s eventual  winner Court McGee by majority decision, the veteran was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury. Ring underwent surgery to fix his ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and has not competed since.

The Calgary middleweight is 10-0 to date in his MMA career and had his last official pro bout in September, 2009, when he submitted Yannick Gallipeau at an Aggression MMA event.

Fukuda (17-4) becomes the latest accomplished Japanese fighter to be signed to the UFC, and will head into his Octagon debut riding a seven fight winning streak. Fukuda is coming off a TKO stoppage of Ryota Sakurai in October and holds a win over Murilo “Ninja” Rua during his current undefeated run.

UFC 127 will be headlined by a welterweight bout between former champion BJ Penn and perennial contender Jon Fitch. Some of the other bouts that have been confirmed for the card include middleweight Michael Bisping vs. Jorge Rivera, lightweight Dennis Siver vs. George Sotiropoulos and Carlos Condit vs. welterweight Chris Lytle.

The event will be hosted by Sydney’s Acer Arena.