The New Jersey crowd should be firmly behind local favorite Mickey Gall when he takes on Polish fighter Salim Touahri at UFC Newark next month.
Mickey Gall will be fighting at home the next time he steps in the UFC octagon. On Tuesday, UFC officials announced that Gall would face Poland’s Salim Touahri at UFC on ESPN 5, commonly known as UFC Newark. The welterweight battle will mark the first time Gall (5-2) has fought at home in the UFC. Gall is a native of Green Brook, NJ.
Gall entered the UFC after calling out WWE star CM Punk on Dana White’s Lookin’ for a Fight reality show. Steamrolling Mike Jackson, a part-time fighter the UFC lined up for Gall prior to the Punk fight, he then made short work of Punk in the latter’s ignominious debut. From there, Gall would take out Sage Northcutt, making him something of a star-killer ever so briefly, before coming up short against Randy Brown at UFC 217.
Since the Brown fight, Gall has gone 1-1, with a win over George Sullivan and a loss to Diego Sanchez most recently, at UFC 235.
Salim Touahri (10-3) has lost his first two UFC fights to date. He’ll meet Gall in desperate need of a win to stave off being bounced by the promotion. Prior to entering the UFC, Touahri had been on a five fight win streak. However, he’s struggled to stay active, fighting just once in both 2017 and 2018.
UFC on ESPN 5 takes place April 3 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. The card is headlined by a welterweight fight promising fireworks, as Robbie Lawler will take on Colby Covington.
