Following the signing of Joseph Duffy by the UFC on Wednesday, there was another huge announcement for Irish MMA today as SevereMMA can exclusively reveal that Paul Redmond has also joined his fellow former-Cage Warriors lightweight in signing a contract to fight inside the Octagon. Redmond will step in to replace Alan Omer against Mirsad Bektic at UFC on Fox 14 in Sweden later this month in the first outing of a 4-fight deal. The news was confirmed to SevereMMA’s Peter Carroll by the UFC on Monday afternoon.

Team Ryano’s Redmond is 10-4 in his MMA career and has won 7 of his last 8 fights. The Dubliner is best known for his slick submissions, with the toehold his favourite move, but has added a tight boxing game to his arsenal which he showcased brilliantly against Alexis Savvidis in August of last year.

Against Bektic, though, Redmond will be fighting at featherweight for the first time after plying his trade at lightweight his whole career.

Bektic is one of the top American featherweight prospects in the UFC today. The 23 year-old is undefeated in eight fights having won his UFC debut against Chas Skelly in April of last year. Training out of America top team in Florida, Bektic works out daily with the likes of Will Brooks, Hector Lombard and UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler.

“It’s not just this performance I’ll be looking to make a statement in.” Redmond told SevereMMA in his first interview after signing on the dotted line. “Every time I get in there I’m looking to do that. Don’t get me wrong, I know this is the UFC, I know this is the biggest event in Europe but for me, it doesn’t matter where I’m fighting, I’m always going to go out and try to pull off something spectacular.

“I want to send people home telling their mates about the guy they just saw fighting. That’s just the way I am, you’ve seen me fight before, anything this guy gives me I’ll be jumping on it 100 per cent. I can only fight that way, there is no other way for me.”

UFC on Fox 14 will go down on January 24th in the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden and will also feature Redmond’s teammate Neil Seery taking on Chris Beal on the card headlined by the light heavyweight contender bout between Alexander Gustafson and Anthony Johnson.

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