Fight fans are gearing up for the premier of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 22 which begins next month on FOX Sports 1. This season features a European team coached by none other than interim featherweight champion Conor McGregor, and an American team coached by “The California Kid” himself Urijah Faber.
Despite the show not starting yet, a date and venue has been announced for the finale, as it will go down on December 11, 2015 from the Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Not only has a date been announced for the event, but a super intriguing lightweight battled has also been announced, as MMAFighting has confirmed that fan favorite, and notorious bonus winner Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon will take on Evan Dunham.
Lauzon has won three out of his last four bouts, most recently scoring a one-sided TKO victory over Takanori Gomi at last month’s UFC on FOX 16. Prior to that, Lauzon had scored wins over Mac Danzig and Michael Chiesa before dropping a TKO loss to “Raging” Al Iaquinta at last January’s UFC 183.
“J-Lau” will look to put a win-streak together when he takes on Dunham, who has won two-straight unanimous decisions over Rodrigo Damn, and most recently Ross Pearson last month. He too will look to keep his win-streak going.
Also announced for the TUF 22 Finale was a welterweight matchup between Mike Pierce, and Ryan LaFlare. Pierce is returning to action for the first time since 2013 when he took on the highly controversial Rousimar Palhares. Pierce dropped a submission to Palhares who not surprisingly held on too long. LaFlare is also coming off of a loss to Demain Maia last march.
This event is set to go down just one day before UFC 194 which features the highly-anticipated featherweight title unification bout between reigning champ Jose Aldo and McGregor. Chris Weidman will also defend his middleweight title against Luke Rockhold at UFC 194.
