Lorenz Larkin
Lorenz Larkin (born September 3, 1986) is an American professional mixed martial artist currently competing in the Welterweight division of Bellator MMA. A professional competitor since 2009, Larkin formerly competed for Strikeforce and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). As of February 22, 2022, he is #6 in the Bellator Middleweight Rankings. Background. Larkin was born and raised in Riverside, California as one of nine siblings. Larkin began training in boxing at a young age and also played football, but soon gave it up because he did not excel at it or other team sports. He attended Riverside Polytechnic  High School. Afterwards, he continued boxing but was not able to compete as much as he would like to, due to his father's objections. Larkin also felt that he was too short to be a professional boxer in the heavyweight division, so he took up Kickboxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu which led him to mixed martial arts. Prior to his career in mixed martial arts, Larkin also trained in Kung Fu. In an interview, Larkin stated he enjoyed the martial arts movies that were popular around the time he was growing up and wanted to be a Kung Fu  fighter. Mixed martial arts career. Early career. Larkin holds records of 5-0 and 10-0 in amateur boxing and amateur mixed martial arts, respectively, with one of those wins coming against Heavyweight prospect Walt Harris. Making his professional MMA debut in August 2009, he compiled an undefeated record of 12-0. Strikeforce. Larkin made his debut in the Strikeforce promotion on April 1, 2011, against kickboxer Scott Lighty at , replacing Satoshi Ishii on a week's notice. Larkin won the fight via technical knockout in the second round and earned praise for his impressive performance against a veteran fighter , while being largely unheard of himself. Larkin returned to the promotion in June 2011. He faced Gian Villante and won the fight via unanimous decision. Villante controlled the first round from top position but Larkin turned it around in the second round by keeping the fight on the feet and landing many strong kicks to the legs of his opponent. Larkin kept this up in the third round while also scoring an unexpected takedown in the last ten seconds. Larkin was originally scheduled to headline the next challengers event against Virgil Zwicker but Zwicker pulled out due to an injury . Larkin instead faced Nick Rossborough and won the fight via unanimous decision. Larkin next faced Muhammed Lawal at . He lost the fight via KO in the second round, the first loss of his professional career. However, the result was overturned and changed to a No Contest after Lawal tested positive for steroids (Drostanolone). For his next fight, Larkin dropped down to Middleweight division. He faced heavy-handed future UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler on July 14, 2012, at . He won the fight via unanimous decision. Larkin was to challenge Luke Rockhold for the championship on November 3, 2012, at . The  event was to be held at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but was cancelled in October 2012. The fight was rescheduled and set to take place on January 12, 2013. However, Rockhold once again pulled out of the fight due to injury. Larkin was then scheduled to face Ronaldo Souza, but the fight never materialized. Ultimate Fighting Championship. In January 2013, the Strikeforce organization was closed by its parent company Zuffa. A list of fighters scheduled to be brought over to the Ultimate Fighting Championship was released in mid-January and Larkin was one of the fighters  listed. On February 9, 2013, the UFC announced that Larkin would make his debut against Francis Carmont at in San Jose, California. He lost the fight due to a controversial unanimous decision with many major MMA media scoring the fight as a win for Larkin. For his second UFC appearance, Larkin faced Chris Camozzi on November 6, 2013, at UFC Fight Night 31. He won the fight via unanimous decision. Larkin faced Brad Tavares on January 15, 2014, at UFC Fight Night 35. He lost the fight via unanimous decision. Larkin faced Costas Philippou at UFC Fight Night 40. He  lost the back-and-forth fight via knockout in the first round. Larkin was expected to face Derek Brunson at UFC 176. However, after UFC 176 was cancelled, Larkin/Brunson was rescheduled and eventually took place on August 30, 2014, at UFC 177. Larkin lost the fight by unanimous decision. For his next fight, Larkin moved down to the welterweight division. He faced John Howard on January 18, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 59. Larkin won the fight via TKO in the first round. The performance also earned Larkin his first "Performance of the Night" bonus award. Larkin faced Santiago  Ponzinibbio on June 27, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 70. Larkin won the fight via TKO in the second round and earned a "Fight of the Night" bonus. Larkin faced Albert Tumenov on January 2, 2016, at UFC 195. He lost the back-and-forth fight by split decision. Larkin faced Jorge Masvidal on May 29, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 88. He won the back-and-forth fight via split decision. Larkin faced Neil Magny on August 20, 2016, at UFC 202. He won the bout via TKO in the first round, after hurting his opponent with leg kicks  and finishing the fight with elbows. Bellator MMA. In March 2017, Larkin announced he had signed a multi-fight deal with Bellator MMA. In his debut, Larkin faced welterweight champion Douglas Lima at Bellator NYC on June 24, 2017. He lost the fight via unanimous decision. In his second fight for the promotion, Larkin faced British striker Paul Daley on September 23, 2017, at . Despite a good first round where he stunned Daley multiple times, He went on to lose the fight via knockout in the second round. Larkin faced Fernando Gonzalez in a catchweight bout at Bellator 193 on  January 26, 2018. He won the fight via unanimous decision. Larkin was expected to face Erick Silva at Bellator 207. On October 1, 2018, news surfaced that Silva pulled out of the fight due to an injury, and he was replaced by Ion Pascu. He won the fight via unanimous decision. Larkin was expected to headline Bellator 219 against Andrey Koreshkov on March 29, 2019, but withdrew from the fight due to an injury. The bout with Koreshkov eventually headlined Bellator 229 on October 4, 2019. Larkin won the back-and-forth bout via split decision. Larkin faced Keita Nakamura  at on December 29, 2019. He won the fight by unanimous decision. Larkin was scheduled to face Costello van Steenis in a middleweight bout at Bellator 258 on May 7, 2021. On April 27, it was announced that van Steenis suffered an injury during training and pulled out of the bout. On May 1, former Bellator Middleweight World Champion Rafael Carvalho was announced as a replacement. Larkin won the bout via split decision. Larkin was scheduled to fight Khalid Murtazaliev on May 6, 2022 at Bellator 280. However at the end of March, Murtazaliev pulled out of the bout and  was replaced by Anthony Adams. Adams in turn pulled out as well and was replaced by UFC vet Kyle Stewart.