(This man is earning his paycheck.)
A pair of UFC fight bookings were reported today by MMAJunkie. Heavyweight Octagon newcomers Jon Olaf Einemo and Dave Herman will meet at UFC 131 next month in Vancouver, BC and Vladimir Matyushenko and Alexander Gustafsson will square off at UFC 133 in August in Philidelphia, PA.
Einemo (6-1), who is coming off of a five-year hiatus from MMA, was originally slated to take on Shane Carwin on the june card before “The Engineer” was promoted to a number one contendership bout opposite Junior dos Santos as a result of Brock Lesnar pulling out of the scheduled bout because of a diverticulitis flare-up. His only loss came by decision at the hands of Strikeforce contender Fabricio Werdum at PRIDE 31.
8-2 in his last ten outings including a DQ loss to Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in 2010, Herman (20-2) was supposed to face Joey Beltran on the card before it was reshuffled. A veteran of Bellator, Sengoku, EliteXC, “PeeWee” has stoppages in 19 of his 20 wins.
Matyushenko vs. Gustafsson will see “The Janitor” try to avenge his teammate Jared Hamman’s UFC 105 loss to “The Mauler.” Both fighters will take two-fight win streaks with them into the bout. Matyushenko (26-5) defeated Jason Brilz by devastating KO at UFC 129 last month and Alexandre Ferreira by TKO at UFC 122 in November. Gustafsson (11-1) beat Cyrille Diabate at UFC 120 in October and James Te-Huna at UFC 127 in February. Both wins came by rear naked choke.