Ladies and gentlemen, Thiago “Pitbull” Alves is back, and he is facing off with Seth Baczynski at UFC on Fox 11. The UFC announced the news Thursday (via Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com) and it marks the end of a lengthy hiatus for the hard-kicking former contender.
Alves was scheduled to face Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 149 in July 2012, but was forced to withdraw from the bout due to injury. He was later booked to Matt Brown at UFC Fight Night 26, but once again was unable to compete.
“Pitbull” first rose to prominence when he knocked out Matt Hughes at UFC 85. He parlayed that into title contention after beating Josh Koscheck at UFC 90 and fought Georges St-Pierre at UFC 100. Injuries and losses have defined his career since, however, going 2-3 since losing to St-Pierre. In his most recent fight, which came opposite Martin Kampmann all the way back in March 2012, he squandered what seemed to be a sure-fire decision victory by tapping to a guillotine choke following an inadvisable takedown attempt in the final minute of the last round.
His opponent is Seth Baczynski. A former TUF11 cast member, Baczynski has put together a 5-3 record in the UFC, most notably choking out Matt Brown at UFC 139. Most recently, he took a handy unanimous decision victory over TUF 16’s Neil Magny at UFC Fight for the Troops 3.
UFC on Fox 11 goes down April 10 in Orlando, FL and is headlined by the critical heavyweight tilt between Travis Browne and Fabricio Werdum. Whether this fight will land on the main card or preliminary card is not yet known, but stick with Bleacher Report for more details as they become available.
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