Sotiropoulos carries a two-fight losing streak into the bout, having fallen to Rafael dos Anjos and Dennis Siver in his last two appearances. Prior to those defeats, the 35-year-old grappling whiz had established himself as a title contender at lightweight with a seven-fight winning streak in the promotion.
Pearson returns to 155 pounds after a pair of bouts as a featherweight. “The Real Deal” defeated Junior Assuncao in his 145-pound debut before being knocked out by Cub Swanson in June. “The Ultimate Fighter 9” winner is 4-2 as a lightweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, with triumphs against Andre Winner, Aaron Riley, Siver and Spencer Fisher.
Other Pick’Em trends for UFC on FX 6:
• A whopping 85 percent of players like Robert Whittaker to defeat Brad Scott in “The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes” welterweight final. Whittaker has finished all nine of his professional victories by either knockout or submission, while Scott has yet to go the distance in nine professional outings;
• An overwhelming 85 percent of users believe Colin Fletcher will topple Norman Parke to become “The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes” lightweight winner. Known as “Freakshow,” Fletcher has earned seven of his eight career wins via tapout. Park, meanwhile, counts 12 submissions among his 16 pro victories;
• A solid 69 percent of competitors think Hector Lombard will capture his first Octagon triumph in a middleweight clash against Rousimar Palhares. Lombard was lackluster in his UFC debut, dropping a split verdict to Tim Boetsch at UFC 149. Palhares had a three-fight winning streak halted by Alan Belcher at UFC on Fox 3 in May;
• In preliminary bouts, players favor Chad Mendes (99 percent) over Yaotzin Meza, Igor Pokrajac (88 percent) over Joey Beltran, Mike Pierce (90 percent) over Seth Baczynski, Ben Alloway (83 percent) over Manuel Rodriguez, Mike Wilkinson (93 percent) over Brendan Loughnane and Cody Donovan (75 percent) over Nick Penner.