A welterweight bout featuring fighters Jake Ellenberger (23-5) and Carlos Eduardo Rocha (9-0) will be added to the main card of February’s UFC 126 event.
The bout was first reported by MMAjunkie.com who noted that both fighters have agreed verbally to meet at the event.
Ellenberger had been scheduled to meet Jon Fitch, but Fitch was given a new opponent in BJ Penn after his win over Matt Hughes, leaving Ellenberger’s status up in the air. Now he’s got a new opponent in Rocha and will look to win three in a row when they meet. Ellenberger is 2-1 so far in the UFC, having fought for a long list of promotions before breaking into the big leagues. He defeated John Howard by TKO (doctor stoppage) at UFC Live: Jones vs. Matyushenko, defeated Mike Pyle by TKO in the second round at UFC 108, and dropped his first UFC bout to Carlos Condit by split decision at UFN 19.
“Ta Danado” Rocha is a Ji-Jitsu fighter from Brazil who remains undefeated in his professional career. So far he’s earned eight wins by submission and one by TKO (corner stoppage). He made his UFC debut on Nov. 13th at UFC 122 in Germany against “TUF 11″ finalist Kris McCray. The Brazilan would make short work of McCray by submitting the fighter with a kneebar at 2:21 of the first round.
UFC 126 will take place on Feb. 5th at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada and will be headlined by a UFC middleweight title bout between champion Anderson Silva versus #1 contender Vitor Belfort.