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As the opening round of The Ultimate Fighter: Undefeated tournament begins to wind down, the last lightweight matchup will take place this week as Team Cormier's No. 1 overall pick Richie Smullen will take on dark horse contender Allan Zuniga from Team Miocic.
Smullen comes to The Ultimate Fighter this season out of Team SBG in Ireland. Artem Lobov, who is an Ultimate Fighter alum as well, gave Smullen the money he would need to travel to the United States so he could participate in the tryouts for the reality show. The plan paid off as Smullen was not only selected for the cast but he ended up as Cormier's No. 1 pick in the lightweight division.
Smullen has gone 3-0-1 with all three of his victories coming by way of submission or TKO.
As for Allan Zuniga, the 13-0 lightweight out of Costa Rica is much more of an unknown coming into this tournament, despite his experience advantage. Zuniga is a well rounded fighter with a mix of wins by knockout and submission, with a few decisions mixed in there as well. This tournament is definitely his biggest step up in competition, but Zuniga's ability to fly under the radar has kept him as a dark horse all season long and now he'll get his chance to shine.