Welterweights Vicente Luque and Belal Muhammad are expected to test their momentum in the division later this year, meeting in the main event of an April 16th UFC “Fight Night” card.
News of the matchup was first reported by Brett Okamoto of ESPN on Tuesday night. The fight joins a slowly growing event that is without an announced location at the moment.
Luque and Muhammad are currently two of the higher-ranked fighters who have yet to challenge for the UFC Welterweight Championship.
They have met before in the UFC cage, as Luque picked up a first-round finish win against Muhammad in 2016. A lot has changed since then, as the welterweights have competed a combined 24 times following their first meeting.
Muhammad has avoided defeat since early 2020 and has picked up six wins in total during that time. He earned two decision wins in 2021, defeating both Demian Maia and Stephen Thompson on scorecards.
The upcoming fight will be Muhammad’s second UFC main event fight. His first headlining fight ended prematurely last year, as an eye poke from Leon Edwards forced the bout to stop in the second round.
Luque will be competing in his first-ever headlining bout. Despite being successful in his 17-fight UFC run, he has only competed in three-round bouts thus far.
Luque is currently on a four-fight winning streak that all comes via finish. He closed out two fights with a darce choke submission last year, stopping former champ Tyron Woodley and experienced fighter Michael Chiesa.
Now with the main event in place, here is how UFC’s April 16th show looks:
Bout 5: Vicente Luque (21-7-1) vs. Belal Muhammad (20-3) (Welterweight)
Bout 4: Drakkar Klose (11-2-1) vs. Brandon Jenkins (15-8) (Lightweight)
Bout 3: Miguel Baeza (10-2) vs. Dhiego Lima (15-9) (Welterweight)
Bout 2: Rafa Garcia (13-2) vs. Jesse Ronson (21-10) (Welterweight)
Bout 1: Chris Barnett (22-7) vs. Martin Buday (9-1) (Heavyweight)
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