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[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

UFC 123: Joe Lauzon vs George Sotiropoulos on tap for Nov. 20
by Jesse Holland on Sep 8, 2010 9:22 AM EDT 25 comments



There's a fantastic lightweight match-up brewing between up-and-coming division prospects Joe Lauzon and George Sotiropoulos, as the Ultimate Fighter (TUF) veterans are currently in talks to throw down at the upcoming UFC 123 pay-per-view on Nov. 20 in Auburn Hills, MI.

MMAmania.com confirmed the pending match-up earlier today.

Lauzon (19-5) vaulted himself back into the 155-pound title hunt with a first round ass kicking of Gabe Ruediger at the UFC 118: "Edgar vs Penn 2" pay-per-view event last month in "Beantown."

It was an impressive rebound win for "J-Lau," who suffered just his second Octagon loss back in January after dropping a unanimous decision to the venerable Sam Stout at UFC 108: "Evans vs. Silva" in Las Vegas.

Overcoming the Aussie could push the former computer geek into a rematch with Kenny Florian -- or perhaps even bigger and better things.



After getting bounced from TUF 6 by now-exiled Tommy Speer, Sotiropoulos (13-2) has been nothing short of unstoppable, including a unanimous decision win over fellow submission specialist Kurt Pellegrino at UFC 116: "Lesnar vs. Carwin" back on July 3.

The convincing win over "Batman" was his seventh straight. In fact, his only loss in the past five years was a disqualification to Shinya Aoki, after Sotiropoulos kicked the Tobikan in his little Judans.

I don't think it's a stretch to call this one an early candidate for fight of the night.

UFC 123 is expected to be headlined by a light heavyweight match up of top contenders Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Karo "The Heat" Parisyan has also been given a second chance at UFC stardom against Dennis "Superman" Hallman.

UFC 123: Joe Lauzon vs George Sotiropoulos on tap for Nov. 20 - MMA Mania

Should certainly be a barnburner....

[TBEAR]

Hell YEAH!!!!!!!

My boy George is going to take it though. I like both guys should be a hell of a fight.
George wins this in the end though IMO, then gets a title shot

[dgil]

I just came.

[ckauffman28]

lauzon looked great in the last fight.. George is prob 2 wins away from a title shot now

[Chute_Boxe44]

Man o man this is gonna be a kick ass fight. I'm gonna predict a ton of awesome ground work in this one for sure.

[JCVD]

This is gona be a cracker, there will be some unbelievable scrambles if this goes to the ground! Having looked at George recently though if he keeps the fight standing i see him picking Joe apart. His stand-up looks vastly improved in the last few fights. Think i'd prefer to see them duke it out on the ground though, they both have top class ground games. Considering how fast a pace both guys set, might be interesting to see who tires first.

[Adambomb]

No offense to Lauzon, but George is going to rape him. Gabe Reudiger isn't exactly a top 10 or even a top 20 quality opponent. Georges just beat Stevenson and Pellegrino VERY convincingly. I actually see this being a pretty easy fight for him leading up to an eventual #1 contender showdown with Even Dunham (if he gets by Sean Sherk).

[Qball1974]

sweet can't wait, I like them both so i'll just have to hope for a good fight.

[SinnerTim]

One thing I think will be interesting is if Sotiropoulos can survive the early flurry, Joe always pushes the pace right off the bat, not sure if we've seen George up against that. I think the longer this goes, the worse it looks for Lauzon.

[JCVD]

Originally Posted by SinnerTim

One thing I think will be interesting is if Sotiropoulos can survive the early flurry, Joe always pushes the pace right off the bat, not sure if we've seen George up against that. I think the longer this goes, the worse it looks for Lauzon.

Yeah but George usually flies outa the blocks pretty fast himself, so i don't see that been too much of an issue for him. Both guys are gona go right after each other from the start. Should make for an interesting fight.