{"id":283304,"date":"2018-08-21T06:08:30","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T13:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=283304"},"modified":"2018-08-21T06:08:30","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T13:08:30","slug":"gray-maynard-returns-to-lightweight-opposite-nik-lentz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/gray-maynard\/gray-maynard-returns-to-lightweight-opposite-nik-lentz\/","title":{"rendered":"Gray Maynard returns to lightweight opposite Nik Lentz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two-time UFC lightweight title challenger Gray Maynard will return to the lightweight division at UFC 229, where he will battle fellow veteran Nik Lentz.<\/p>\n<p>This bout was first reported by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/sports\/mma-ufc\/las-vegan-gray-maynard-set-for-lightweight-return-at-ufc-229\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Las Vegas Review-Journal.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Maynard has spent his last three fights in the UFC featherweight division, where he went 2-1, defeating Teruto Ishihara, losing to Ryan Hall, and defeating Fernando Bruno \u2014 all by decision. This featherweight run was preceded by four-straight losses in the lightweight division: a decision defeat to Alexander Yakovlev, and knockouts dealt by Ross Pearson, Nate Diaz and TJ Grant. The 39-year-old Maynard is 13-6-1 overall.<\/p>\n<p>Nik Lentz, meanwhile, has also floated between the lightweight and featherweight divisions. His most recent bouts have occurred a lightweight, where he lost a decision to David Teymur, submitted Will Brooks, and lost a decision to Islam Makhachev. He&#8217;s 28-9-2 overall.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the full UFC 229 lineup as it currently stands:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Champ Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/fighter\/conor-mcgregor\/\">Conor McGregor<\/a> \u2013 for the UFC lightweight title<\/li>\n<li>Derrick Lewis vs. Alexander Volkov<\/li>\n<li>Jussier Formiga vs. Sergio Pettis<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc-229\/exclusive-ovince-saint-preux-vs-dominick-reyes-in-the-works-for-ufc-229\/\">Dominick Reyes vs. Ovince Saint Preux<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Felice Herrig vs. Michelle Waterson<\/li>\n<li>Yana Kunitskaya vs. Lina Lansberg<\/li>\n<li>Sean O\u2019Malley vs. Jose Quinonez<\/li>\n<li>Ryan LaFlare vs. Tony Martin<\/li>\n<li>Scott Holtzman vs. Alan Patrick<\/li>\n<li>Nik Lentz vs. Gray Maynard<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Who do you think will come out on top in this bout between Gray Maynard and Nik Lentz?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 8\/21\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two-time UFC lightweight title challenger Gray Maynard will return to the lightweight division at UFC 229, where he will battle fellow veteran Nik Lentz. This bout was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.\u00a0 Maynard has spent his last three fights in the UFC featherweight division, where he went 2-1, defeating Teruto Ishihara, losing to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":283305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10632],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gray Maynard returns to lightweight opposite Nik Lentz | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two-time UFC lightweight title challenger Gray Maynard returns to the division where he twice fought for gold opposite Nik Lentz.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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