Former UFC champion Frankie Edgar and current featherweight contender Cub Swanson will both return to action at UFC 162 on July 6 but against different opponents.
Edgar and Swanson have flirted with the idea of fighting for the past month and were actually offered the headline spot at The Ultimate Fighter 17 finale show in April on short notice.
Unfortunately at the time, Swanson was still healing from his last fight in February against Dustin Poirier and was unable to take the fight against Edgar in mid-April.
Now both fighters will return to action at UFC 162. Edgar will face Brazilian Charles Oliveira while Swanson will take on German fighter Dennis Siver.
Edgar moved to the featherweight division earlier this year for a shot at champion Jose Aldo at the main event of UFC 156. The former lightweight titleholder lost a unanimous decision to Aldo but now returns to the cage hoping to work his way back into contention.
At only 23 years of age, Oliveira remains a bright prospect in the UFC’s 145-pound weight class, but he still needs to find his footing after going 2-3-1 in his last five fights.
Oliveira started his UFC career as a lightweight, but he decided to make the drop to featherweight three fights ago and quickly moved to 2-0 in his first two fights. The streak ended when he suffered a knockout to Cub Swanson at UFC 152, which also saw Oliveira miss weight the day before.
Now he has to try to regain traction against a tough opponent in Edgar when they meet at UFC 162 in July.
As for Cub Swanson, he will try to take one more step toward a shot at the featherweight belt when he faces Dennis Siver on the same card. Swanson and Siver were actually matched up in February at a UFC on Fuel TV card in England, but the German-born striker was forced out of the show due to injury.
Prior to the injury, Siver had picked up two wins in a row since dropping down to featherweight after 13 fights in the UFC lightweight division.
The winner of Swanson vs. Siver would be in an enviable position as a top contender in the UFC featherweight title picture along with Ricardo Lamas and “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung, who meet on the same card at UFC 162.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report.
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