Norway’s Emil Meek (9-4, 1 NC) will face Australian Jake Matthews (15-4) at the UFC Fight Night in Auckland, New Zealand on February 22.  The UFC announced the matchup.

Emil is ready to bounce back from his 2018 losses to Kamaru Usman and Bartosz Fabiński.  The 31-year-old out of Trondheim has not been in the cage since July of 2018.

“I need a fight fires me up like a lonely drunk man at 03:00 getting a call by a hot girl after scrolling through his contacts for the 7th time to get hooked up!” said Meek to MMA Viking that has been targeting an early 2020 return.

Matthews is familiar to Nordic MMA fans as he most recently outpointed Rostem Akman at UFC 243 in October. The local fighter is 25-year-old and is 4-1 in in his last five bouts.

“A perfect fight” – Meek

Meek has been on a roller coaster over the last four years.  After losing by 1st round stoppage in 2015, Meek went on a four fight winning streak including a stoppage over top ranked and feared Rousimar Palhares in 2016 and his first and only Octagon win over veteran Jordan Mein later in the year.

Paul Felder and Dan Hooker will headline the card.