It will be almost four years to the day when Michael Bisping returns to his hometown in England for his next fight after agreeing to meet Mark Munoz in a new fight booked on Friday.
Bisping and Munoz have both verbally agreed to the fight, which will take place on October 26 in Manchester, England. News of the fight was first reported by John Morgan and George Garcia of MMAJunkie.com.
The bout between Bisping and Munoz is expected to serve as the five-round main event for the card.
It will be quite the homecoming for Bisping, who hails from England and fought there regularly as the UFC made its expansion into the country after he won The Ultimate Fighter in 2006.
The last time Bisping stepped foot in his hometown for a fight was all the way back in 2009 when he defeated Denis Kang at UFC 105.
Now he will return to his home country for a showdown that could potentially land the winner near the top of the division when it comes to a contender’s spot for a title shot.
Bisping returns to action following a dominant win over Alan Belcher at UFC 159 in April. The Brit will look to put back-to-back wins together when he fights in October after bouncing back and forth between victories and defeats over his past four bouts.
Facing Bisping in England will be Mark Munoz, who hopes to duplicate the success he felt the last time he traveled to the country in 2011.
For that fight, Munoz faced Chris Leben in the main event for UFC 138. Munoz won the bout by TKO following the end of the second round.
The former NCAA champion wrestler just recently returned to action after sitting out for an entire year following a loss to Chris Weidman in July 2012. Munoz suffered a broken foot and an injured elbow that put him on the sidelines for the rest of the year, and for a good part of 2013 as well.
Munoz returned to form for his last fight where he blasted fellow middleweight Tim Boetsch, putting on one of his best performances to date to win by unanimous decision.
Now Munoz will try to get back into the title race when he faces Bisping in October in his backyard of England.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
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