The MMA Lab has a long history of turning out top-end talent, including former UFC champs Benson Henderson and Sean O’Malley, title challengers John Moraga and Jared Cannonier, tenured veterans like Alex Caceres and Drakkar Klose, and the ascending bantamweight triumvirate of Mario Bautista, Kyler Phillips, and Marcus McGhee.
Carpenter currently profiles as the next to join that impressive collective of fighters from the Glendale, Arizona outpost to thrive on the UFC stage.
Sporting a 9-0 record to begin his career, the 28-year-old impressed with a gutsy win over Edgar Chairez on Season 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series, battling through a tough first half of the fight to earn a unanimous decision win over the current flyweight mainstay. He made his promotional debut six months later, submitting Juancamilo Ronderos in the opening round, but was then out of action for 20 months before returning to the Octagon in October.
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Carpenter showed no real signs of rust in his return to action, opening the night with a second-round submission win over Lucas Rocha in a bout where he landed at a greater than 55-percent clip and garnered nearly five minutes of control time on the canvas, despite the bout lasting just over eight minutes. It was his second straight rear-naked choke finish in the UFC, fourth submission win of his career, and sixth finish in eight starts.