{"id":290235,"date":"2018-11-04T10:27:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-04T18:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=290235"},"modified":"2018-11-04T17:34:55","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T01:34:55","slug":"report-two-huge-welterweight-contender-bouts-in-the-works-for-early-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-two-huge-welterweight-contender-bouts-in-the-works-for-early-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Report | Two huge welterweight contender bouts in the works for early 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the sounds of it, the first quarter of 2019 is going to be a busy stretch for the UFC welterweight division. According to BJPENN.COM&#8217;s Chris Taylor, the UFC is currently working on a pair of huge welterweight matchups for the New Year. The first is expected to pit former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler against two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen &#8220;Wonderboy&#8221; Thompson. The second will see former ONE and Bellator welterweight kingpin Ben Askren make his Octagon debut opposite recent title challenger Darren Till.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This just in!  Per multiple sources close to the situation, the UFC is targeting the following two welterweight bouts for early 2019:<br \/>Stephen Thompson vs Robbie Lawler and Ben Askren vs Darren Till. Neither fight has been officially signed but that is the intention.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chris Taylor (@CTaylor_96) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CTaylor_96\/status\/1059132083480670208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 4, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This just in! Per multiple sources close to the situation, the UFC is targeting the following two welterweight bouts for early 2019: Stephen Thompson vs Robbie Lawler and Ben Askren vs Darren Till,&#8221; Taylor reported on Twitter. &#8220;Neither fight has been officially signed but that is the intention.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Stephen &#8220;Wonderboy&#8221; Thompson last fought in May, when he gave up a decision to Darren Till. In his next most recent bout, he defeated Jorge Masvidal by decision. The karate specialist is an impressive 14-3-1 overall.<\/p>\n<p>His expected upcoming opponent Robbie Lawler, meanwhile, is 28-12 overall. He has not fought since December of 2017, when he gave up a decision to Rafael dos Anjos. This loss was preceded by a decision defeat of Donald &#8220;Cowboy&#8221; Cerrone and a knockout loss to Tyron Woodley, which marked the end of his reign as UFC welterweight king.<\/p>\n<p>Darren Till last fought in September, when he was submitted by Woodley in his long-awaited welterweight title shot. This was Till&#8217;s first loss as a pro mixed martial artist. Highlights of his undefeated run include defeats of Thompson and Cerrone. He&#8217;s 17-1-1 overall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ben Askren, finally, is a flawless 18-0 overall. He last fought in November of 2017, when he scored a TKO win over Shinya Aoki in a superfight that was supposed to serve as the last bout of his career. With this win, he improved to 6-0 in ONE Championship, building on a legendary run as Bellator\u2019s welterweight champion. Over the course of his career, he\u2019s defeated names like Aoki, Zebaztian Kadestam, Andrey Koreshkov, Douglas Lima, Jay Hieron and Lyman Good.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think of these planned welterweight matchups?<\/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 11\/4\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the sounds of it, the first quarter of 2019 is going to be a busy stretch for the UFC welterweight division. According to BJPENN.COM&#8217;s Chris Taylor, the UFC is currently working on a pair of huge welterweight matchups for the New Year. The first is expected to pit former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":289870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10184,37606,10152,10132,39610],"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>Report | Two huge welterweight contender bouts in the works for early 2019 | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The UFC is looking to start the year 2019 off with a bang, as its working on two huge matchups in the welterweight division \u2014 including the debut of Ben Askren.\" \/>\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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