It looks like [autotag]Derrick Lewis[/autotag] will get to throw down in his home city once again when he faces the streaking [autotag]Tai Tuivasa[/autotag].
A fight between Lewis (26-8 MMA, 17-6 UFC) and Tuivasa (14-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) is in the works for UFC 271, which takes place Feb. 12 at Toyota Center in Houston.
Two people with knowledge of the booking recently informed MMA Junkie of the matchup but asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Lewis broke the record for most knockouts in UFC history when he took out Chris Daukaus in Round 1 of the UFC Fight Night 199 main event in December. “The Black Beast” has won five of his past six. His lone loss came in an interim heavyweight title fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 265, also in Houston.
Tuivasa is enjoying the best run of his career. The 28-year-old Aussie, who’s been training out of Dubai under head coach Shaun Sullivan, has knocked out his past four opponents, including back-to-back Performance of the Night finishes of Greg Hardy and Augusto Sakai.
With the addition, the UFC 271 lineup includes:
- Champ Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker – for middleweight title
- Derrick Lewis vs. Tai Tuivasa
- Derek Brunson vs. Jared Cannonier
- Kyler Phillips vs. Marcelo Rojo
- Roxanne Modafferi vs. Casey O’Neill
- Alex Perez vs. Matt Schnell
- Mark Madsen vs. Vinc Pichel
- Fabio Cherant vs. Carlos Ulberg
- Maxim Grishin vs. Ed Herman
- Ronnie Lawrence vs. Mana Martinez
- Alexander Hernandez vs. Renato Moicano
- AJ Dobson vs. Jacob Malkoun
- Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. Sergey Morozov
- Orion Cosce vs. Mike Mathetha
[vertical-gallery id=1871383]
[listicle id=1925276]
[pickup_prop id=”17322″]