Two Middleweight battles added to the UFC's return to London

Barnatt and Scott set to defend British pride as the UFC returns to the UK

by Sam Heard @SamHeard_

The already-juicy UFC Fight Night card billed to take place in our great capital’s 02 Arena this March had two additional middleweight fights added earlier this week. Cambridge’s Luke Barnatt has been matched against Sweden’s Mats Nilsson while Somerset-born Brad “Bear” Scott will fight Claudio Henrique da Silva.

Luke “Bigslow” Barnatt (7-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) vs Mats Nilsson (11-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC)

Team Sonnen’s first pick in the 17th season of The Ultimate Fighter, Bigslow has lived up to the outspoken American’s high expectations of him, already having been victorious twice in the Octagon as well as picking up that coveted Fight of the Night Bonus. Barnatt’s Fight of the Night against Andrew Craig was an amazing bout. On two occasions Barnatt dropped the American and thought the fight was finished only for Craig to make an unexpected recovery. Craig – who was as high as a 4/9 favourite going into the fight with big wins over fighters like Chris Leben and Rafael Natal – was finally overwhelmed by Barnatt’s slick ground game as Bigslow locked in a rear-naked choke. Bigslow has garnered a great deal of popularity for his charisma and direct nature. Comically he and fellow UK fighter Conor McGregor have become involved in a twitter beef after Bigslow criticised the Irishman’s unwarranted hype. It’s a wonder featherweight McGregor – who has been known to pick fights with people ridiculously far outside his weight class – hasn’t challenged the 6’6” Barnatt to a fight!
Bigslow’s opponent making his debut in the UFC is Sweden’s Mats Nilsson. Nilsson will be well known to UK MMA fans after stringing together wins in Cardiff and Glasgow for Cage Warriors in 2013. Having picked up wins in seven of his last eight fights, there is little wonder Nilsson has been enlisted by the UFC and he is certainly a tough test for Barnatt.

Brad “Bear” Scott (9-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) vs Claudio Henrique da Silva (9-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC)

Brad Scott looks to build on his success from UFC Fight Night 30 with his decisive first round submission victory over fearsome Dutch striker Michael Kuiper. Fighting in Manchester after a near-year hiatus following his loss to Robert Whittaker, doubters of Scott thought ring-rust combined with a dangerous opponent spelt the worst for Scott. He silenced the doubters dramatically with his first round victory and doubtless filled the wallets of shrewd MMA punters having been offered at tall 3/1 betting odds.
Like Mats Nilsson, Claudio Henriqeu da Silva will be welcomed to his Octagon debut by a Brit coming off a massive win. In very unusual circumstances, the Brazillian Da Silva may have more right to claim the home field advantage over Brad Scott as he trains full time in London with the Shootfighters gym. Da Silva has successively won nine fights with eight of the victories coming within the distance.

Both these fights are very welcome additions to an already brilliant card. Best of luck to Luke and Brad from Kingdom MMA in their preparations for the fights; we can’t wait to see them do what they do best on 8th March.