On Sunday the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced three bouts for its upcoming UFC 134/UFC: Rio event in August. Confirmed by UFC President Dana White, was a rematch between former UFC champs Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Forrest Griffin, as well as a lightweight matchup between Spencer Fisher and Thiago Tavares.
Not previously announced before today is a light heavyweight bout between Brazilian black belt Luiz “Banha” Cane (11-3, 1NC) and undefeated Stanislav Nedkov (11-0).
UFC 134/UFC: Rio is expected to take place on Aug. 27 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Headlining the event, is a middleweight title bout between champion Anderson Silva and top challenger, Yushin “Thunder” Okami.
Cane sports a 4-3 record under the UFC banner and bounced back from two straight losses with a win last month at UFC 128. The Brazilian earned a first round TKO stoppage over Eliot Marshall at the Newark event. Both of the two losses came in the first round and both were by TKO, a UFC 114 loss to Cyrille Diabate and a UFC 106 defeat against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Nedkov, a native Bulgarian, will make his UFC debut against Cane when the two meet in Rio. Most of Nedkov’s pro career has taken place mostly in Bulgaria, and has fought three times in Japan at Sengoku and Pancrase events. Five victories have occurred by (T)KO and four by submission.