Al Iaquinta meets Mitch Clarke at UFC 173 in Las Vegas
The UFC continues to fill outs its Memorial Day weekend show with the addition of a lightweight fight.
Al Iaquinta (8-2-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) will meet Mitch Clarke (10-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) at UFC 173 this May in Las Vegas. UFC officials announced the new fight booking late Wednesday night.
UFC 173 takes place May 24 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The card, which is headlined by a middleweight title bout between champ Chris Weidman and challenger Vitor Belfort, has a main card on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.
Iaquinta earlier this month won his third straight fight when he took Kevin Lee the distance for a unanimous decision win at UFC 169 in Newark, not far from his native New York. Prior to that, he had a perfect 2013 with wins over Ryan Couture and Piotr Hallman to make up for a loss to Michael Chiesa in the “TUF 15″ final.
Clarke, from Canada, picked up his first UFC win this past June when he outpointed John Maguire at UFC 161 in Winnipeg. After starting his career a perfect 9-0, he dropped his first two UFC fights, both in his native Canada, with a TKO loss to John Cholish at UFC 140 and a split-decision loss to Anton Kuivanen at UFC 149. His fight at UFC 173 will be his first time fighting outside of Canada.
With the addition, the latest UFC 173 card now includes:
Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort
James Krause vs. Jamie Varner
T.J. Dillashaw vs. Takeya Mizugaki
Chris Holdsworth vs. Kyung Ho Kang
Doo Ho Choi vs. Sam Sicilia
Mitch Clarke vs. Al Iaquinta
