Jhonata
Diniz
now has a target at which to aim.
The undefeated
Santa Fe Team
heavyweight will make his
Ultimate Fighting Championship debut against
Austen Lane
in a featured
UFC on ESPN 55 attraction this Saturday at the UFC in Apex in
Las Vegas. Diniz was welcomed onto the UFC roster in September,
when he buried then-
Legacy
Fighting Alliance champion
Eduardo
Neves with punches in the first round of their showcase on Week
6 of
Dana White’s Contender Series. The Brazilian drew the curtain
3:15 into Round 1, improving to a perfect 6-0.
“That knockout for me was so special because the situation is
special,” Diniz said at the post-fight press conference. “Of
course, this will be a special highlight for me.”
The 32-year-old kickboxer weathered some early adversity, as he met
with jabs, front kicks to the body and a few combinations from his
aggressive countryman. He eventually pushed Neves to the fence
before uncorking a right hook and a plunging right cross upstairs.
It proved to be the beginning of the end. Neves marched forward and
walked into a searing one-two that leveled him where he stood in
the center of the cage. No follow-up shots were required. Diniz,
who has finished all six of his opponents inside one round, was not
surprised it turned into a firefight.
“I was waiting for that because I know I’m in the heavyweight
division,” he said. “Everybody’s strong, everybody’s dangerous,
everybody’s tough for three minutes. If you have a good mentality
for making the right game plan, that’s it. We made a good plan for
this fight, and the result was this.”
Lane, meanwhile, spent time with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas
City Chiefs, Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears during an abbreviated
NFL career. He transitioned to mixed martial arts in 2017, striking
gold in the Fury Fighting Championship, Combat Night and Warfare
MMA organizations. Lane last suited up at UFC 293, where he lasted
just 82 seconds in a knockout loss to
Justin Tafa
on Sept. 10. Diniz wants to make an immediate impact in the
heavyweight division, starting with his 6-foot-6 counterpart.
“I don’t care who I fight,” he said. “If you give me a top guy,
I’ll face him. I’ve been a kickboxer my whole life, and I’ve been
fighting tough guys. If the UFC gives me an easy fight, I’ll do it.
I’m here for work.”
Two other competitors—lightweights
James
Llontop and
Chris
Padilla—are also scheduled to draw their first UFC paychecks at
the event, albeit against one another.
A Fusion Fighting Championship titleholder, Llontop called upon
violent creativity in a contract-clinching unanimous decision win
over
Malik Lewis
on DWCS in September. Scores were 30-27, 30-26 and 30-26. Llontop,
24, dazed the Texan with a stabbing right hand in the waning
seconds of Round 1 and never looked back. He racked Lewis’ body
with a painful kick in the second and put the impressive depth of
his tool box on display with shovel uppercuts, takedown-deterrent
elbows to the side of the head and close-range knees. Llontop made
even more progress on the ground, where he hammered away with knees
and elbows before threatening with a late face crank to close the
third round. It was the promising Peruvian prospect’s 12th straight
victory.
On the other side of the equation, Padilla steps up to the plate as
a short-notice replacement for
Lando
Vannata. He finds himself on a three-fight winning streak
following a second-round technical knockout of
Justin
Jaynes under the Up Next Fighting banner on Oct. 21. A
well-traveled
Bellator
MMA,
CES MMA,
Brave Combat Federation,
King of
the Cage and
Resurrection Fighting Alliance alum, the 28-year-old Padilla
sports 11 finishes among his 13 professional victories.