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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Ultimate Fighter season 13 winner Tony Ferguson has his first fight scheduled since winning the season earlier this month, as he will drop to lightweight to meet a returning Aaron Riley at UFC 135 in September.
The UFC announced the lightweight matchup on Monday evening.
Ferguson made his way through the reality show's most recent season by defeating each of his opponents by knockout or TKO while in the house in January. Earlier this month he capped off his success with a first round TKO finish of Ramsey Nijem.
Riley returns to the UFC for the first time since a decision win over Joe Brammer at UFC 114 last May. He was initially scheduled for a return last September, but an injury took him out of UFC 119 and has sidelined him for all of 2011 thus far.
UFC 135 takes place from the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo. on September 24, headlined by a Light Heavyweight Championship bout between Jon Jones and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.
Penick's Analysis: This is the right type of fight for Ferguson coming off of the win over Nijem. He was really the only competitor this season that stood out, and with Riley being a longtime veteran who can make for a good test, even with the long layoff, this is a good bit of match making. It's a fight where Ferguson will need to prove himself as the winner of the show, and for Riley, he has an opportunity to knock off a guy that got a lot of exposure over the last few months on Spike. It should be a good fight for this card.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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