Yesterday was Thanksgiving and the UFC gave us a fun featherweight matchup to be thankful for. MMA Junkie was the first to report that the UFC had finalized a matchup between Edson Barboza (22-10) and the undefeated Bryce Mitchell (14-0).
The matchup will take place on March 5th. For Barboza, he’s going to be looking to get back in the win column after he lost his last fight. In his last fight, Baboza headlined a UFC Fight Night against Giga Chikadze.
Entering that bout, Barboza had won two fights in a row in the featherweight division. A win over Chikadze would have put the Brazilian in an excellent position. However, Barboza couldn’t find much success and was stopped in the third round.
Now, Barboza is looking to reset and the UFC isn’t doing him any favors in booking him against ‘Thug Nasty’. That said, this matchup is going to be equally challenging for Mitchell. This is your stereotypical striker versus grappler matchup.
Will Thug Nasty stay unbeaten in the UFC?
Bryce Mitchell made his UFC debut back in 2018 at the Ultimate Finale where he picked up a win. Since then, he’s gone a perfect 4-0 which includes a victory where he pulled off a twister.
Thug Nasty has a sick ground game and you can imagine that he’s going to try and get the fight with Barboza down to the mat. However, doing that might not be very easy.
In his last fight, Mitchell picked up a big decision win over Andre Fili. That was the first big step up in competition for Mitchell since he joined the UFC. Now, Mitchell is going to take another step up in facing Barboza.
It’s been over a year since we’ve seen Mitchell as he’s been recovering from some injuries. This is not an easy fight to come back to, however, Mitchell wants challenges and the UFC is willing to give them.