Update: Barboza-Gaethje in the works for UFC Philadelphia

A whirlwind of punches, kicks, elbows, and knees is reportedly targeted for March.

UFC Nashville is expected to play host to a violent striking clinic when Edson Barboza and Justin Gaethje knuckle up. The bout was first reported by reporter Farah Hannoun on Twitter, as well as MMAjunkie.

Barboza, currently ranked sixth in the UFC’s lightweight rankings, vs. Gaethje, ranked 7, is a dream match that fans have talked about since Gaethje was first signed to the sport’s leading promotion. Both fighters are coming off phenomenal performances in which they finished their respective opponents in very different, but equally violent ways.

Barboza turned Dan Hooker’s body into ground meat with a sustained assault that officially ended via third-round body KO. Gaethje made short work of James Vick in August, knocking him out in 1:27 with a punch that sent Vick’s head flying to the cheap seats of the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

However, Gaethje’s manager Ali Abdelaziz threw cold water on the news shortly after it circulated on Twitter.

“That’s definitely not true,” Abdelaziz asserted. “Especially in Nashville.”

The two violent strikers have been on each others’ radar for quite sometime and this bout has Fight of the Night, or even potentially Fight of the Year, written all over it.

Update: ESPN’s Brett Okamoto now reports that the fight is actually being lined up for UFC Philadelphia on March 30th, which would be televised on ESPN.