Also announced by UFC officials early Thursday morning for the upcoming UFC 132 event is a lightweight bout between rising stars George Sotiropoulos (14-3) and Evan “3-D” Dunham (11-2).
The bout was made official at UFC.com by UFC President Dana White for the upcoming Fourth of July long weekend.
The stacked lightweight division will also see two of its fastest-rising stars meet over Fourth of July weekend: White confirmed that Evan Dunham and George Sotiropoulos have verbally agreed to a bout at UFC 132.
UFC 132 has not been officially announced, but it is expected to take place on July 2 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sotiropoulos suffered his first loss in nine matches last month at UFC 127. The Greek-Australian faced German fighter Dennis Siver on the main card and was unable to take the fight to the ground in the bout. Siver was awarded the unanimous decision by the judges. Sotiropoulos had been on a seven fight tear in the UFC having submitted Joe Lauzon at UFC 123, earning the “Fight of the Night” bonus as well, in his last fight. He earned unanimous decisions over Kurt Pellegrino at UFC 116 and over Joe Lauzon at UFC 110.
Dunham has lost two straight, after what appeared to be a fast rise to lightweight contention. The Oregon born fighter faced Melvin Guillard in the main event of UFC: Fight for the Troops 2 in January, losing by TKO in the first round of that event. The other loss was an exciting matchup against “The Muscle Shark” Sean Sherk back at UFC 119 in September. Sherk would win a controversial split decision from the judges and both men would walk away with the “Fight of the Night” bonus. It was the first loss of Dunham’s professional career.