Former UFC titleholders Rafael dos Anjos and Cody Garbrandt have their next fights booked for the summer.
Rafael dos Anjos vs. Vicente Luque
For former UFC Lightweight Champion dos Anjos, he is set to collide with number 10 ranked UFC welterweight Vicente Luque on July 15, MMAFighting.com reports. The fight will headline the card, which will take place one week after UFC 290. The card is expected to be held in Las Vegas.
In late 2022, dos Anjos returned to the 170-pound division. He defeated Bryan Barberena via second-round submission. It was a nice bounce back win for dos Anjos, who suffered a fifth-round knockout loss against Rafael Fiziev back in July 2022.
Luque hasn’t been in action since August of last year. He suffered a knockout loss in his bout with Geoff Neal. It was “The Silent Assassin’s” second loss in a row. The two-fight skid comes after what looked to be a promising four-fight streak.
Cody Garbrandt vs. Mario Bautista
As for Cody “No Love” Garbrandt, the former UFC Bantamweight Champion is expected to meet Mario Bautista on a UFC card scheduled for August 19, MMAFighting.com also reports. A location for the event isn’t known at this time. Garbrandt is hoping to build off his unanimous decision victory over Trevin Giles back in March. The win snapped a two-fight skid, that saw “No Love” drop a unanimous decision to Rob Font and suffer a TKO loss to Kai Kara-France.
Bautista is riding a four-fight winning streak. In that span, he defeated Jay Perrin, Brian Kelleher, Benito Lopez, and Guido Cannetti. Bautista won three of his last four bouts via submission. He hasn’t suffered a defeat since March 2021. Bautista lost his bout against Trevin Giles via second-round TKO. This was the second time Bautista had been stopped in his pro MMA career. His first defeat was at the hands of Cory Sandhagen, who submitted him in the first round of their January 2019 clash.
