Rob Emerson vs. Nik Lentz likely for UFC Fight Night 21

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A lightweight bout between Rob Emerson and Nik Lentz has reportedly been verbally agreed upon for the UFC Fight Night 21 event on March 31 at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The bout between Lentz and Emerson will likely appear on the event's unaired preliminary card. With the addition of the bout to UFC Fight Night 21's prelims, the event now has a staggering seven bouts on the preliminary portion of the event.

Emerson (9-8) is coming off of an impressive unanimous decision win over Phillipe Nover at UFC 109 on Feb. 6. Prior to the win, he lost back-to-back fights against Kurt Pellegrino and Rafael dos Anjos. The Ultimate Fighter 5 cast member has put together a 3-2 (1 NC) record with the UFC, scoring other Octagon wins over Keita Nakamura and Manny Gamburyan.

Emerson, who recently was training with UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn, has fought for an array of other notable organizations throughout his seven-year career, such as King of the Cage, Total Combat, Deep, Shooto and Pancrese.

Lentz (17-3-2) is currently on a 10-fight winning streak, which includes a draw with WEC veteran Kyle Jensen, as well as wins over Dan Loman, UFC veteran Drew Fickett and Rafaello Oliveira in his UFC debut in September at UFC 103. The Minnesota Martial Arts Academy product most recently fought to a draw with Thiago Tavares at UFC Fight Night 20 in January.

Lentz has been competing professionally since August 2005, while fighting for notable promotions such as Extreme Fighting Xtreme, Xtreme Fighting Organization, Extreme Challenge and Extreme Beatdown.

The Spike TV televised UFC Fight Night 21 event is the third UFC event in the month of March, and will also serve as a lead-in for the debut episode of The Ultimate Fighter 11.

The event is headlined by a very interesting lightweight match up between former title contender Kenny Florian and former Pride champion Takanori Gomi. In addition, TUF 10 winner Roy Nelson will take on rising prospect Stefan Struve in a heavyweight bout set as the night's co-featured bout.