Lorenz Larkin vs. Constantinos Philippou set for ‘UFC Fight Night 40’ in Cincinnati

UFC officials announced today that a middleweight bout between Lorenz Larkin (14-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) and Constantinos Philippou (12-4 MMA, 5-3 UFC) will take place at May’s ‘UFC Fight Night 40’ event in Cincinnati.

After reeling off 5 consecutive victories to put himself in UFC middleweight title contention, Constantinos Philippou has since suffered back-to-back losses inside of the octagon. At September’s UFC 165 event in Toronto, Costas suffered a unanimous decision loss to opponent Francis Carmont. The loss to Carmont served as Philippou’s first defeat since March of 2011. Philippou most recently saw action in the headlining bout of January’s “UFC Fight Night 35” event opposite former Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold. Unfortunately for fans of Costas, Rockhold defeated him via first round TKO after landing a nasty body kick.

Lorenz Larkin has gone 1-2 since joining the UFC ranks from the former Strikeforce promotion. Larkin defeated Chris Camozzi via unanimous decision to earn his first UFC win at the organizations ‘Fight For The Troops 3’ event in November of 2013. Larkin’s most recent effort came at January’s “UFC Fight Night 35” event in Duluth, opposite Hawaiian Brad Tavares. The Kailua native out-pointed Larkin on all three judges scorecards to earn the unanimous decision that evening.

The ‘UFC Fight Night 40’ event takes place May 10 live from Cincinnati’s U.S. Bank Arena. The main card is set to air on FOX Sports 1, following the prelims which show on UFC Fight Pass. A headliner for the event has yet to be announced.

The ‘UFC Fight Night 40’ event in Cincinnati now includes the following bouts:

• Daron Cruickshank vs. Erik Koch
• Johnny Eduardo vs. Eddie Wineland
• Lorenz Larkin vs. Constantinos Philippou
• Justin Salas vs. Ben Wall
• Ed Herman vs. Rafael Natal
• Soa Palelei vs. Ruan Potts
• Manny Gamburyan vs. Nik Lentz
• Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Darrell Montague
• Chris Cariaso vs. Louis Smolka
• Yan Cabral vs. Alexander Yakovlev