Former Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season eight contestant Kyle Kingsbury (9-2) will look to make it three straight wins when he takes on promotion sophomore Ricardo Romero from the Mandalay Bay Events Center on Feb. 5 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
MMA Die Hards brought word of the pending match-up late last night.
The likable but unsuccessful Kingsbury made his debut on TUF 8 and was quickly bounced from the competition after suffering a submission loss to eventual winner Ryan Bader in episode two.
After Karn Girgoryan was injured, "Kingsbu" was reinserted into the tournament but was submitted by Krzysztof Soszynski in the quarterfinals. He joined some of his fellow cast mates in the TUF Finale in December 2008 but lost to Tom Lawlor via unanimous decision.
Since then, he's managed to string together back-to-back wins with a split decision over Razak Al-Hassan at last year's UFC 104 pay-per-view followed by a unanimous nod over Jared Hamman at UFC Fight Night 22 back in September.
Standing in his way is Romero, who was successful in his Octagon debut (despite suffering a broken jaw) when he submitted Seth Petruzelli at UFC 116 back in July.
The New Jersey native has compiled a 11-1 record during the course of his three-year career, spending most of his time competing under the Ring of Combat (ROC) banner. In addition to "The Silverback," Romero holds a notable win over TUF 10 contestant James McSweeney.
UFC 126 will feature a headlining bout of middleweight champion Anderson Silva defending his strap against the fast hands of Vitor Belfort in a fight that was originally scheduled for UFC 112.
The undercard consists of a 205-pound clash between friends as Forrest Griffin takes on Rich Franklin while a monumental showdown pitting rising prospects against each other in Jon Jones vs Ryan Bader will also take place.
Stay tuned to MMAMania.com for future updates to this still-developing fight card.
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