For the first time, an Ultimate Fighter Finale card will feature a UFC title fight.
Flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson will defend his belt against John Moraga in the main event of the TUF 17 Finale, which will be held on April 13 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The news was initially reported Monday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Johnson (17-2-1) is fresh off his first successful flyweight title defense, a hotly contested unanimous decision win over John Dodson on Jan 26. That UFC on FOX 6 main event bout was watched by an average of 5.2 million viewers.
Moraga, meanwhile, trains out of Arizona’s MMA Lab along with UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson. The 13-1 Moraga has won both of his UFC fights, as he picked apart Ulysses Gomez in a first-round TKO at UFC on FOX 4, and won Submission of the Night honors after finishing Chris Cariaso at UFC 155.
The Johnson-Moraga announcement capped a busy day of TUF Finale news, as it was also reported that Miesha Tate will meet Cat Zingano in a women’s bantamweight fight, and Gabriel Gonzaga will face off with Travis Browne at heavyweight.