Legacy Fighting Championships signs welterweight prospect Lucas Pimenta

The Texas-based Legacy Fighting Championships has signed fast-rising prospect Lucas Pimenta for its upcoming HDNet-televised events.

Legacy promoter Mick Maynard today confirmed the signing with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

Pimenta, a Brazilian welterweight and onetime Bellator fighter, sports an undefeated 5-0 record.

No debut date or opponent have been determined Pimenta, though he could fight at a show tentatively planned for May 11.

Legacy recently has sent some of its top fighters to major promotions. For example, middleweight champ Andrew Craig recently signed to fight Kyle Noke in March at UFC on FX 2, and featherweight/lightweight champ Daniel Pineda recently signed with the UFC and submitted Pat Schilling at UFC on FX 1.

Pimenta recently was featured in our "Fight Path" series, where he talked about how crime in his native Brazil closed the streets to his boxing gym. Instead, he joined a jiu-jitsu gym and soon followed the path into MMA.

He recently moved to and now trains out of Newark, N.J.

Pimenta fought as an amateur as a 16-year-old. By April 2011, he was fighting MMA in the U.S., beating Yusef Yoldas at an Urban Conflict Championships show in Morristown, N.J. In October, he took two fights in a span of two weeks, defeating Doug Rossi at Fight Time 7 on Oct. 7 and then quickly turning around to top Bryan Danner at a Cage Fury Fighting Championships show on Oct. 22.

In his lone Bellator appearance, Pimenta scored a 40-second KO of Doug Gordon at Bellator 59 in November. It was third consecutive victory that came in fewer than two minutes.