As expected, the much-talked about featherweight fight between Bart Palaszewski (Pictured) and Hatsu Hioki will in fact go down at UFC 144. Palaszewski confirmed the scrap Sunday via his Twitter account.
“So we got @ufc 2 grant my wish & got the Hioki fight : ) now lets get @danawhite to put my fight on on PPV or @FXNetworks. You know Im always lookin for a KO!” Palaszewski tweeted.
Hioki made his highly-anticipated big league debut last month at UFC 137. While it wasn’t the most impressive performance of his career, the former Shooto champion ultimately managed to escape with a split decision victory over George Roop.
Speaking of UFC premieres, Palaszewski competed in the same event and won ‘Knockout of the Night’ honors for putting Tyson Griffin down in the 1stRound of their matchup. Bartimus has won five out of his last six contests.
The Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan will host the February 26th event. A lightweight title scrap between champion Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson is scheduled to headline the card.
No word from the UFC on how the show will be made available for viewing.
Here is the card’s updated roster:
Hatsu Hioki vs. Bart Palaszewski
Yushin Okami vs. Tim Boetsch
Cheick Kongo vs. Mark Hunt
Joe Lauzon vs. Anthony Pettis
Jake Shields vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Ben Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar (UFC Lightweight Champion)