Nov 2, 2019; New York, NY, USA; Vicente Luque (blue gloves) during his fight against Stephen Thompson (red gloves) during UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Sarah Stier-USA TODAY Sports
The UFC is close to finalizing a big time matchup between top welterweight contenders for a card in August. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was the first to report this afternoon that the promotion was close to finalizing Vicente Luque (21-8-1) and Geoff Neal (14-4).
The matchup will take place at a UFC Fight Night on August 6th. For Geoff Neal, he’s going to be searching for his second straight win. The last time we saw him was back at UFC 269 when he took on Santiago Ponzinibbio.
It was a close fight, but Neal was able to pick up the split decision victory. That win snapped a two-fight losing streak for Neal that saw him drop fights to Wonderboy Thompson and Neil Magny.
Handz of Steel started out strong in the UFC winning his first five fights which included a win over Belal Muhammad. However, things stalled between 2020 and 2021. Now, Neal is looking to regain his hype and get back to the top of the welterweight division.
When Vicente Luque enters the octagon to face off against Geoff Neal, he’s going to be looking to bounce back. We just saw Luque headline a UFC Fight Night against Belal Muhammad and he lost a unanimous decision.
That loss snapped a four-fight winning streak for Luque. During that winning streak, he scored first round finishes over top contender Michael Chiesa and former UFC champion Tyron Woodley.
This is a huge fight for both men with both looking to stay relevant near the middle of the top ten at welterweight. With a dominant champion like Kamaru Usman, the UFC is constantly looking at guys he’s never fought.
Luque and Neal both fall into that category. Whoever wins this fight is going to be in a good position to start making a run towards a title shot in the future.
This post was published on 2022-05-12 14:48
