Nitro MMA bantamweight champion Ben Nguyen has signed with the UFC and will make his promotional debut at UFC Fight Night: Miocic vs Hunt in Adelaide.
News of Nguyen’s signing was revealed today by The Daily Telegraph.
Nguyen (13-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will square off with American based Turkish fighter Alptekin Ozkilic (9-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC) at the event, which will headlined by a heavyweight tilt between Mark Hunt and Stipe Miocic at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Sunday May 10.
Currently training out of the Integrated Martial Arts gym in Brisbane, American born Nguyen has enjoyed a great deal of success since making his local debut back in 2013. The 26 year-old has concurred all six of his Australian based opponents, and will ride an impressive seven-fight win streak into Adelaide. The adopted Aussie recently received international attention after a video of his Nitro 11 weigh in altercation with Julian ‘Julz The Jackal’ Rabaud went viral, clocking up more than 50 million views worldwide.
The man who will be eager to spoil Nguyen’s UFC call up, and keep his own UFC dream alive, is 29 year-old Turkish – American Alptekin Ozkilic. A NJCAA All-American wrestler, ‘The Turkish Delight’, who trains at the St. Charles MMA gym in Missouri, USA, is staring down the barrel of three straight defeats in the UFC, after 2014 losses to John Lineker and Louis Smolka. The two-fight slump followed his 2013 promotional debut against Darren Uyenoyama, who he defeated by a split points decision.
Nguyen will be making the drop back down to flyweight for the fight.
Fight Card:
- Stipe Miocic vs Mark Hunt
- Brad Tavares vs Robert Whittaker
- Anthony Perosh vs Sean O’Connell
- Jake Matthews vs James Vick
- Bec Rawlings vs Seo Hee Ham
- Kyle Noke vs Andreas Stahl
- Dylan Andrews vs Brad Scott
- Alex Chambers vs Kailin Curran
- Vik Grujic vs Brendan O’Reilly
- Hatsu Hioki vs Dan Hooker
- Daniel Kelly vs Sam Alvey
- Ben Nguyen vs Alptekin Ozkilic
