Shogun Rua Gets New Opponent For UFC Germany
Yesterday (Mon. July 2, 2018) it was announced that Volkan Oezdemir was removed from his headliner role against Shogun Rua at UFC Fight Night 134 in Germany, and will instead challenge Alexander Gustafsson.
This left the former UFC light heavyweight champ without a dance partner. Enter Anthony Smith. According to a report from MMA Junkie, Smith will step in to fight the Brazilian in place of Oezdemir.
The event goes down on July 22nd at the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany. This will be “Lionheart’s” second consecutive fight against a former 205-pound champion, downing Rashad Evans into retirement in under a minute his last time out.
He now takes on a 36-year-old in Rua who surprisingly is in the midst of the longest winning streak of his UFC career with three. Rua defeated Gian Villante in the third round via TKO in his last fight at UFC Fight Night 106 in March of last year.
You can check out the lineup for UFC Fight Night 134 here below:
Main Card (FS1, 2 P.M. ET):
- Mauricio Rua vs. Anthony Smith
- Ilir Latifi vs. Glover Teixeira
- Stefan Struve vs. Marcin Tybura
- Abu Azaitar vs. Vitor Miranda
- Marc Diakiese vs. Nasrat Haqparast
- Alan Jouban vs. Danny Roberts
Preliminary Card (FS1, 12 P.M. ET)
- Damir Hadzovic vs. Nick Hein
- Bartosz Fabinski vs. Emil Meek
- Justin Ledet vs. Aleksandar Rakic
- Jeremy Kimball vs. Darko Stosic
- Pingyuan Liu vs. Damian Stasiak
