Cathal Pendred to meet Sean Spencer in Boston on January 18

Adding to the growing list of Irish fighters already set for action on Boston’s January 18 date at the TD Garden, Cathal Pendred has been confirmed to meet American Sean Spencer at UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs Siver.

“It feels amazing, it worked out even better than I could’ve imagined,” said the Boston-born Dubliner who was linked with a UFC debut in Boston when he took victory over Che Mills in June 2013.

“I was able to make my debut in Dublin and experience that as my introduction to UFC. I’ve had another fight after that, so I’m going back home to Boston where I was born as an established UFC fighter, two fights and two wins into my career.

“This is a massive opportunity for me. I know UFC are keen on getting me onto this card. I’ve known for over a month that I would be on it. Even before this card was announced, I knew I would be on it.”

Pendred revealed how he was “pretty shocked” at getting Spencer as an opponent having gone through the UFC’s welterweight division with a fine tooth comb after hearing he would be on the card.

He said: “I have no idea about the guy. I genuinely thought I had the list down to about ten people. I knew about it so far in advance I went through all 110 UFC welterweights and tried to figure out who I could be matched with.

“I took out the top ten straight away and then I start eliminating guys that were injured or already matched to face people. I had it down to about ten or fifteen guys and I don’t even remember seeing this guy’s name. I was pretty shocked, I was sure I had it figured out.

“The opponent never matters to me. I know he’s had five fights in the UFC and he’s 3-2. He’s decent, he’s fought at middleweight so he’s obviously a good size and he’s beaten Paulo Thiago like my last opponent did so he’ll be a tough test. I’m extremely confident. I was disappointed with my last fight so I’m really going to look to put a stamp on this performance.”

Having already competed five times under the UFC banner, Spencer has had his hand raised on three occasions after getting the better of Yuri Villefort, Drew Dober and most recently, Paul Thiago who the Octagon MMA man claimed a decision over at UFC Fight Night: Bigfoot vs Arlovski.

Spencer succumbed to an arm triangle choke in his promotional debut in the third round of his bout with Rafael Natal at UFC on Fox: Johnson vs Dodson and was on the wrong end of the decision when he met Alex Garcia in a back and forth affair at UFC 171.

Pendred will look to go 3-0 with the world’s flagship MMA promotion having taken a spectacular second round rear naked choke win over Mike King in his debut at UFC Dublin before seeing off Gasan Umalatov with a split decision win in early October.

@PetesyCarroll