A welterweight fight between Robbie Lawler and Santiago Ponzinibbio is now in place for UFC 282 in Las Vegas on December 10th.
The two had previously been paired together back in late 2019, but the fight fell through after Ponzinibbio suffered a staph infection.
At that time Lawler had been on a three-fight losing streak, and it’s not got much better for him since as the following year he’d suffer a unanimous decision loss to Neil Magny. He did then secure a TKO finish over Nick Diaz in a rematch 17-years in the making, but most recently he was TKO’d in the second round by Bryan Barberena.
Now the 40-year-old goes up against the 35-year-old Ponzinibbio, who had been on a seven-fight winning streak prior to the cancellation of their last fight.
However, it was actually 2021 before Ponzinibbio finally returned to action due to numerous medical issues and he’s not been able to rediscover that form since, having won only once in his last four fights.
It’s a slump in form that began with a KO loss to Li Jingliang, though he did pick up a decision win over Miguel Baeza next time out. However, two split-decision losses to Geoff Neal and Michel Pereira have followed since, and so, like Lawler, he no longer features in the welterweight rankings.
Lawler vs. Ponzinibbio joins a UFC 282 card that is expected to be headlined by a light-heavyweight title rematch between Jiri Prochazka and Glover Teixeira, though it’s not been officially announced yet.
