When the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion invades the world’s most famous arena for the first time on Nov. 12, Tim Boetsch will be there.
The 35-year-old Lincolnville native, a veteran of 19 bouts with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, will fight Brazilian Rafael Natal at UFC 205. It will be the first MMA show to be held at Madison Square Garden and the first UFC card in New York since it became the 50th state to legalize professional mixed martial arts last spring.
Boetsch, 19-10 overall, is 10-9 in a UFC career that began in early 2008.
The former four-time wrestling state champion at Camden-Rockport High School and collegiate standout at Lock Haven University has fought on UFC cards in 12 different states. That includes five times in the promotion’s home base of Las Vegas, Nevada, and once in his home state when he scored a second-round TKO over Brad Tavares at UFC Fight Night 47 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor in August 2014.
Boetsch also has fought under the UFC banner in Canada and Japan, where he scored one of his biggest wins with a comeback victory over Yushin Okami in February 2012 that helped vault “The Barbarian” into a top-five ranking among UFC middleweights.
A press conference is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in New York to formally introduce the full UFC 205 card — including the main event announced by UFC president Dana White late Monday night that will match Irish phenom Conor McGregor, already the world featherweight champion, against Eddie Alvarez for Alvarez’s lightweight crown.
UFC 205 also is set to include two other world title bouts — welterweight champion Tyron Woodley facing Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson and women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk defending against Karolina Kowalkiewicz — as well as former champions Chris Weidman, Frankie Edgar, Rashad Evans and Miesha Tate and popular lightweight contender Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone.
Boetsch won’t be contending for a title, but a victory over the 14th-ranked Natal may land the Mainer back in the UFC middleweight rankings and provide a major boost of momentum heading into 2017.
Boetsch is coming off a second-round stoppage via strikes of Josh Samman on July 13 on the main card of UFC Fight Night 91 at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a much-needed victory that ended a three-fight losing streak since his victory in Bangor nearly two years before.
The New York-based Natal (21-7-1) is coming off a loss by unanimous decision to seventh-ranked Robert Whittaker at UFC 197 in April.
Natal, 33, had scored consecutive victories before that over Kevin Casey, Uriah Hall, Tom Watson and Chris Camozzi after a unanimous-decision loss to Ed Herman in May 2014.
Herman scored a second-round win over Boetsch in their light-heavyweight clash in Boston last January.
