Gleison Tibau
A lightweight bout between Octagon veteran Gleison Tibau and TUF Brazil fighter Francisco ‘Massaranduba’ Trinaldo (11-1) will finalize the upcoming UFC 153 card, bringing the total number of matches on the Brazilian card to twelve.
The promotion made the match official on Tuesday at UFC.com, as well as confirming previous announced matches between Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Geronimo dos Santos, and Luiz Canve vs. Chris Camozzi.
TUF Brasil’s Francisco “Massaranduba” Trinaldo, who competed on the show at middleweight, returns to his natural weight class of 155 pounds to take on Gleison Tibau, a UFC veteran who will enter the Octagon for the 17th time in October.
UFC 153: Aldo vs. Koch is expected to take place on October 13, 2012 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event is headlined by a UFC lightweight title match between defending champion Jose Aldo and No. 1 contender Erik Koch.
Tibau will look to bounce back from a loss in his last fight, suffering a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Khabib Nurmagomedov last July at UFC 148. The loss ended a three fight win streak which saw Tibau defeat Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 139, Rafaello Oliveira at UFC 130, and Kurt Pellegrino at UFC 128.
Trinaldo competed as a middleweight on the Brazilian TUF reality series and was beaten by Thiago Perpetuo in the first round after getting into the house. ‘Massaranduba’ won his Octagon debut, beating Delson Heleno by first round TKO in a middleweight bout. The victory extended Trinaldo’s win streak to five.