A middleweight matchup between Brazilian fighters Rousimar Palhares (12-3) and Alexandre “Cacareco” Ferreire (18-7) appears to be in the works for the upcoming UFC 134: Rio event.
Portal do Vale Tudo reported the bout earlier today, noting from a source that both men were in the midst of signing contract agreements for the fight.
UFC 134: Rio will take place on Aug. 27 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
Both men had been scheduled to meet on March 3 at the UFC Live: Sanchez vs Kampmann event, but the bout was cancelled after Ferreira backed out over the loss of friends and family caused by the Brazilian floods last January. Palhares was then matched with Dave Branch for the Versus event.
The bout with Branch was Palhares last trip to the Octagon where he’d win a second round submission (kneebar) victory. The victory put him back in the win column after losing to Nate Marquardt at UFC Fight Night 22 last September. That defeat ended a three fight win streak for Palhares who recorded wins over Tomasz Drwal, Lucio Linhares, and Jeremy Horn. The win over Drwal also earned Palhares a 90 day suspension for failing to let go of his opponents leg after the referee ended the fight.
Ferreira makes his middleweight debut against his fellow Brazilian, and enters the match on a loss after losing to Vladimir Matyushnko by TKO in his UFC debut at UFC 122. That was “Cacareco’s” first defeat in over three years, after earning seven straight wins with various promotions. Ferreira had another fight scheduled for 2010 under the Shine Fights banner against Jamal Patterson, but the event was cancelled at the last minute after headliner Ricardo Mayorga was forced to withdraw over legal matters.