The UFC’s May 26th stop in Las Vegas — which will hopefully be headlined by Junior Dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem — continues to pick up manpower.
In the heavyweight division, undefeated former Strikeforce contender Shane Del Rosario will make his UFC debut against the suddenly-not-retired Gabriel Gonzaga. Del Rosario’s 11-0 record includes 10 wins by first-round stoppage, but he hasn’t competed since his submission of Lavar Johnson a year ago. Meanwhile, Gonzaga just picked up his first win in the UFC since 2009 when he choked out Ednaldo Oliveira at UFC 142. Gonzaga’s last three UFC victories have come against Octagon first-timers, which might be a bad omen for Del Rosario.
Also on the UFC 146 card, TUF 14 featherweight winner Diego Brandao gets his first non-relaity-show opponent in the UFC when he meets Darren Elkins. Elkins is 2-0 in the UFC since dropping to featherweight, with unanimous decision wins against Michihiro Omigawa and Zhang Tiequan. In other words, he’s no pushover, and Brandao might not be able to destroy him quite as easily as his victims on TUF.
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