UFC 88 Card Filling Up

The UFC announced Thursday that Kurt Pellegrino (15-4) and Thiago Tavares (13-2) will meet in a lightweight preliminary bout at UFC 88 in Atlanta 6 September.

Pellegrino lost his most recent fight to Nathan Diaz (9-2) when Diaz caught him in a triangle choke in the second round at Fight Night 13 in April.

Tavares also lost his last fight, to “Handsome” Matt Wiman (10-3) via second-round TKO at UFC 85 in June.

The UFC also confirmed three other preliminary match-ups, a welterweight match between “Stun Gun” Dong Hyun Kim (10-0-1) and Matt Brown (7-6), a light heavyweight match between “The Barbarian” Tim Boetsch (7-2) and James Lee (13-3), and the previously reported match between welterweights “Jucao” Roan Carneiro (12-7) and “Piranha” Ryo Chonan (14-8).

Kim made his Octagon debut at UFC 84 in May with a third-round TKO over Jason Tan (5-3).

Brown, a TUF 7 competitor, won his fight in the June finale with a TKO in round two over “No Regard” Matt Arroyo (3-2).

Boetsch fell to “The Hammer” Matt Hamill (4-1)’s punches in round two in April.

Lee lost his UFC debut in January to “Legionarius” Alessio Sakara (12-7) via first-round TKO, ending a ten-fight win streak.