Rising heavyweight Francis Ngannou will return this September in Edmonton. The fearsome striker will take on former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos at UFC 215. The UFC’s Canadian arm announced the news on Twitter earlier today.
BREAKING: @junior_cigano vs. @francis_ngannou added to #UFC215 at @RogersPlace in Edmonton!@EdmontonSun article: https://t.co/boDxUc4Rv0 pic.twitter.com/1HUtz8n40G
— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) June 28, 2017
The pairing has been rumored for some time. It will pit Ngannou (10–1), winner of all five of his UFC fights to date, against the popular Brazilian dos Santos (18–5). The former champion has fallen on rough times of late, trading wins and losses since 2012. Still, his record and accomplishments in the sport were enough to earn him a title shot against Stipe Miocic at UFC 211 in Dallas last month. JDS was knocked out in the first round.
Ngannou, meanwhile, most recently finished former champ Andrei Arlovski at UFC on Fox 23 in January. Prior to that, he captured stoppage wins against Anthony Hamilton, Bojan Mihajlovic, Curtis Blaydes, and Luis Henrique. The French-Cameroonian fighter has not lost since December of 2014, in his second fight as a pro.
UFC 215 goes down at the Rogers Place Arena in Edmonton, Albert on September 9. No main event has been announced for the PPV card. The event was previously known as UFC 216, but was recently re-numbered, after a potential card in Seattle was dropped for a number of reasons.
