Matt Brown, who went 4-0 in UFC competition with three knockouts in 2012, faces U.K. favorite Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy (25-10, 1 no-contest) in a welterweight match at UFC on FOX 7, UFC officials announced Tuesday.
It’s the third match earmarked for the the FOX 7 show April 20 in San Jose, Calif. It joins the Benson Henderson vs. Gilbert Melendez and Daniel Cormier vs. Frank Mir fights which were announced earlier in the day.
The match was not officially announced as part of the FOX portion of the show, but it is likely to be given Brown is coming off an impressive knockout of Mike Swick on the main portion of the UFC on FOX 5 show on Dec. 8 in Seattle. Hardy is also one of the better known fighters in the company, coming off the publicity leading to his 2009 title shot against George St-Pierre.
Brown and Hardy have suffered similar fates in UFC as both are popular fighters because of their style. In each case, their popularity has saved them. in Brown’s case, he lost three straight fights in 2010 and was not cut. Hardy dropped four in a row, failing to win a fight in either 2010 or 2011, but came back with two wins last year over Duane “Bang” Ludwig and Amir Sadollah.
Brown defeated Chris Cope, Stephen Thompson, Luis Ramos and scored the biggest name win of his career by knocking Swick out at 2:31 of the second round, all this past year.