Melbourne based youngster Jake Matthews will look to rebound next month when he takes on Frenchman Mickael “Ragnar” Lebout in a lightweight contest.
The fight will take place on the UFC Fight Night 72 card which takes place at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Scotland on 18 July (19 July in Australia). News of the match-up was first released by the Herald Sun and later confirmed by the UFC.
Twenty-year-old Matthews (MMA 9-1) suffered his first professional MMA loss on the UFC Adelaide card on May 10 after he was caught in a tight guillotine towards the end of the first-round. The loss stopped a run of nine consecutive wins, not including his ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ appearance where fights are classified as exhibition bouts. Matthews started his UFC tenure with back-to-back wins against Dashon Johnson and Vagner Rocha.
Fighting out of Paris, France, Lebout (13-4-2) will be eager to get a win on the board inside the UFC after the 27-year-old lost his debut on April 11. Lebout went down to Sergio Moraes via a unanimous decision. Prior to that Lebout was riding a six-fight win streak and had captured the PLMMA welterweight championship fighting around Europe. Lebout brings a solid all-around game and will be dropping from welterweight to lightweight for the first time.
Jake Matthews joins fellow Australian Bec Rawlings who takes on Joanne Calderwood in a match-up that was previously announced.
The event will be headlined by a middleweight clash between Michael Bisping and Thales Leites.
