Hot on the heels of the announcement of the first-ever UFC event in Shenzhen, scheduled for August 31, SpoTV just announced the addition of a lightweight match to the schedule. The bout will pit UFC fighters Dong ‘Maestro’ Hyun Ma, 30, and Scott ‘Hot Sauce’ Holtzman, 35, against each other under the Universiade stadium lights.
Dong Hyun Ma changed his name from Dong Hyun Kim earlier this year to distinguish himself from the welterweight fighter of the same name. Ma’s current record is 16-9-3, while Holtzman currently holds a 12-3 record.
Image via SpoTV News
Holtzman comes from an ice hockey background, where he played in various small professional leagues across the US prior to becoming a fighter. When he tried settling into an office gig, he said he was “going crazy [in the] rat race” and eventually started practicing jiujitsu with a friend at a gym. He made his UFC debut in 2015, and won convincingly.
Although Ma’s fighting career can be traced back to 2007, he made his UFC debut in November 2015, picking up his first win against Brendan O’Reilly over a year later. The Body Lock notes that Ma is “well-known for being in exciting fights.”
Both men have won three of their last four fights, but have yet to secure a win in 2019. In February, Holtzman fell short to Nik Lentz, losing by unanimous decision. Similarly, Ma’s consecutive three-win streak was broken in February when he lost to US fighter Devonte Smith in Australia. Who will emerge victorious this time around?
This match will mark the third consecutive year a UFC event has been held in the Middle Kingdom. Starting in 1993, the UFC was conceived as ‘style versus style’ fights featuring some incredibly bloody duels. The mixed martial arts organization has fostered notable celebrities like Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Ronda Rousey as well as Conor ‘The Notorious’ McGregor (who recently challenged movie star Mark Walhberg to a fight... again).
UFC Senior Vice President Asia-Pacific acknowledged that “China is the most important growth market” for the company, and they will “continue to add new cities in China to [their] global calendar of events.”
Stay tuned MMA fans, as the main event has yet to be announced.
READ MORE: UFC to Open World's Biggest MMA Training Center in Shanghai
[Cover image via SpoTV News]
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