Vicente Luque will look to snap his two-fight losing skid when he meets former champ Rafael dos Anjos in a UFC main event this summer.
Luque (21-9-1 MMA, 14-5 UFC) and dos Anjos (33-14 MMA, 21-12 UFC) have agreed to a five-round headliner in the welterweight division at UFC Fight Night on July 15. The card does not have an announced location or venue.
MMA Junkie verified that verbal agreements are in place for the contest with multiple people close to the situation following an initial report from MMAFighting.com. The people requested anonymity because the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
After going on a 10-1 run that included nine finishes against the likes of Michael Chiesa and former champ Tyron Woodley, the results have flipped on Luque, 31, who dropped back-to-back fights in 2022 against Belal Muhammad and Geoff Neal. He was knocked out for the first time in his career by Neal at UFC on ESPN 40 in August, and will look to right the ship following an 11-month layoff.
Dos Anjos, 38, meanwhile, will look to make it 2-0 since he returned to the 170-pound division. The former UFC lightweight titleholder submitted Bryan Barberena at UFC on ESPN 42 in December in his first appearance, and will look to keep that momentum going in what will be his 12th career octagon headliner.
The latest lineup for UFC Fight Night on July 15 now includes:
- Rafael dos Anjos vs. Vicente Luque
- Walt Harris vs. Josh Parisian
- Azat Maksum vs. Tyson Nam
- Chelsea Chandler vs. Norma Dumo
Interesting fight. Guess it will decide if either one are done yet?
Why is he moving to 170 again? I don’t get this fight at all
I thought Luque was a future champ but he looked terrible against Belal.
Strange fight. I like both guys, but Luque hasn’t looked like a headliner as of late.
Cody Garbrandt vs. Mario Bautista
As for Cody “No Love” Garbrandt, the former UFC Bantamweight Champion is expected to meet Mario Bautista on a UFC card scheduled for August 19, MMAFighting.com also reports. A location for the event isn’t known at this time. Garbrandt is hoping to build off his unanimous decision victory over Trevin Giles back in March. The win snapped a two-fight skid, that saw “No Love” drop a unanimous decision to Rob Font and suffer a TKO loss to Kai Kara-France.
Bautista is riding a four-fight winning streak. In that span, he defeated Jay Perrin, Brian Kelleher, Benito Lopez, and Guido Cannetti. Bautista won three of his last four bouts via submission. He hasn’t suffered a defeat since March 2021. Bautista lost his bout against Trevin Giles via second-round TKO. This was the second time Bautista had been stopped in his pro MMA career. His first defeat was at the hands of Cory Sandhagen, who submitted him in the first round of their January 2019 clash.
Pure martial arts, pure violence.
I could have sworn rda hung em up.