The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 5 finalist Manny Gamburyan is about to go on a diet, agreeing to drop 10 pounds and compete in the World Extreme Cagefighting banner (WEC) after suffering back-to-back losses inside the Octagon, according to MMAWeekly.com.
"Pitbull" recently dropped a unanimous decision to Thiago Tavares at UFC 94: "St. Pierre vs. Penn 2" on Jan. 31. He was attempting to get back in the win column after Rob Emerson pasted him with a 12-second knockout at UFC 87: "Seek and Destroy" back in August 2008.
It didn’t happen.
Since losing to Nate Diaz in the finals of the 16-man lightweight tournament at the TUF 5 Finale back in June 2007, Gamburyan put together impressive back-to-back submission wins. He just bout took Nate Mohr’s ankle home with him at UFC 79: "Nemesis" and he choked out Jeff Cox his last time out at UFC Fight Night 13 in April.
Both fights lasted less than four minutes combined.
He’ll look to establish similar success early on in his career with the UFC's sister promotion. But it won’t be easy with guys like Mike Brown, Leonard Garcia, Urijah Faber, Wagnney Fabiano and Jose Aldo, among others, floating around.
No potential date or opponent for Gamburyan’s WEC debut is known at this time. But according to the report he expects something to happen no later than this summer.