News has recently emerged that Mike Pyle and Paulo Thiago are likely to go head-to-head at UFC 142 on January 14th 2012 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fight has not yet been officially announced but looks very likely to take place according to various sources.

Mike Pyle has an MMA record of 21-8-1 and enters this fight coming off a loss to Rory MacDonald at UFC 133. Mike lost the bout in the first round via TKO, this ended a three fight winning streak for Pyle who had scored victories over Jesse Lennox, John Hathaway and Ricardo Almeida. A victory over Thiago in Brazil would be massive for Pyle and would definitely move him up the welterweight ranks.

The Brazilian Paulo Thiago has a record of 14-3, he recently bounced back from a two fight losing streak by defeating David Mitchell at UFC 134 which also took place in Brazil. In the past Thiago has defeated the likes of Josh Koscheck, Jacob Volkmann and Mike Swick. Paulo will now look to build up some wins and get himself into the title race. If Thiago can feed off the home crown and secure a  big win over Pyle then it will definitely put him in the right position for some really big fights within the division. This is sure to be a great fight.

Thanks Guys,

Jay Cee.

Image sourced from “http://mmaresolutions.com” via Google Images.