The Ultimate Fighting Championship confirmed several bouts for it’s upcoming UFC 128 event on Thursday including Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Nate Marquardt, as well as an unannounced featherweight match between Raphael Assunção (15-3) vs. Manvel “The Pitbull” Gamburyan (11-5). Both men are scheduled to fight on the preliminary portion of the card.
This will be Assunção’s UFC debut after putting together a 3-2 record with the WEC promotion. He scored a win in his last fight against LC Davis winning a unanimous decision at WEC 52. The victory helped erase a two fight losing skid suffered at the hands of Diego Nunes and Urijah Faber. Assunção has also earned wins over Yves Jabouin and Jameel Massouh fighting in the WEC.
Gamburyan debuted with the UFC as a lightweight during season 5 of “The Ultimate Fighter” losing in the Finale to Nate Diaz. He’d go on to put together a 2-3 record before back-to-back losses forced him to drop to 145 lbs and move to the WEC. As a featherweight Gamburyan, won three straight eventually taking on champ José Aldo at WEC 51 for the title. Aldo would earn a second round knockout victory marking “The Pitbull’s” last cage appearance.
UFC 128: Shogun vs. Evans event takes place on March 19 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ and is headlined by a UFC light heavyweight title bout between champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. “Suga” Rashad Evans.