Jared Gordon Matched Against Mexican Lightweight at UFC Noche in September

Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight Jared Gordon will be in hostile territory in his home country come September.

Per MMA Mania on Thursday, the first fight of Noche UFC, also known as UFC Fight Night 259 and not a pay-per-view in Guadalajara, Mexico, is official. The event that will now be held inside of the Front Bank Center in San Antonio will see Gordon (21-7, 1 NC) come to blows with Rafa Garcia (17-4) in a lightweight clash where the victor could see a number next to his name the following week. Gordon has since confirmed the Sept. 13 pairing on social media on Friday.

New York’s Gordon has seen his fair share of ups and downs in the Octagon, with the lightweight averse to any kind of streak since 2021. While he has beaten names like Thiago Moises and Mark O. Madsen—in the first round, via strikes—he has fallen controversially short to Paddy Pimblett and Nasrat Haqparast, the former a 2022 “Robbery of the Year” candidate. In both of those matches, media overwhelmingly scored the bouts in favor of Gordon, with nearly half of those scoring the Pimblett fight seeing it 30-27 the other direction.

Lately, it is been two steps forward, one step back for Mexicali, Mexico, native Garcia. Since losing his debut and sophomore effort, Garcia has rattled off two wins and lost the third. Along the way up, Garcia has one-upped names like Vinc Pichel and Clay Guida, but could not get past Grant Dawson or Drakkar Klose. If his current pattern holds, he will beat Gordon and then lose his next match.