At this stage, it seems as though nearly every fighter on the UFC roster has expressed a desire to compete on November 12th at UFC 205. UFC 205 takes place at Madison Square Garden in NY on November 12 and is expected to be a blockbuster card, as it marks the first time the promotion has been able to hold an event in the Empire State.
Advertisement
Even July’s landmark UFC 200 can’t rival this event in terms of significance.
Brazilian MMA media outlet Combate were the first to break the news that Thiago Alves will take on New York’s own Al Iaquinta in an intriguing lightweight clash, with MMAFighting also reporting that sources have told Ariel Helwani that the bout has been added to the card. Iaquinta will be entering the fight riding a four fight winning streak, but he has not competed in seventeen months. Alves will be making his lightweight division debut in this fight, but he did once challenge for the UFC Welterweight Title at UFC 100. It was his fourth straight victory but knee surgery kept him sidelined for well over a year. “Raging Al” holds knockout wins over Joe Lauzon and Ross Pearson.
Alves, whose record stands at 21-10, has also had to endure a lengthy spell watching from the side lines, with his last UFC appearance coming in May previous year when he suffered a TKO defeat to Carlos Condit.
Advertisement
In more recent times Alves has been plagued by injury woes, at one stage spending over two years out of action between March of 2012 and April of 2014, while he’s again been abscent for well over a year since losing by TKO due to a doctor’s stoppage against Carlos Condit in the summer of last year.
