A pair of ranked light heavyweights will be matched up at UFC 255, as Shogun Rua will take on Paul Craig for the second time.
Last November, Shogun Rua and Paul Craig were booked for a co-main event spot in Brazil. In a reverse of their normal game plans, Rua dominated on the mat, meanwhile Craig was dominating the hard-hitting Hall-of-Famer on the feet. The end of the fight would bring no rightful winner as the bout would be ruled a draw, however, one year later they are going to be running it back according to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.
The bout will come as both fighters are streaking and have recently broken into the top-15 of the light-heavyweight division. Rua incredibly has only one loss in his last seven fights, with his last win coming over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in the final fight of their trilogy in July. Rua has gone on record as saying that he only has a few fights left in his career, and he actually called for the Craig rematch following his win over Nogueira. Now, it looks like he’s getting his wish.
Craig, on the other hand, has only one loss in his last five fights, with that sole loss being to highly rated prospect Alonzo Menifield. Craig last fought on the same card as Shogun, defeating Gadzhimurad Antigulov by submission earlier in the night. Craig has been one of the more entertaining fighters in the light heavyweight division since breaking into the UFC in 2016, with only one of his fights going to a decision. That sole decision being the draw with Rua.
The bout is only the third to be added to UFC 255 on November 21. No location has been confirmed for the event at this time. The card is expected to be headlined by a pair of flyweight championship bouts, as newly-crowned men’s flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo defends his belt against former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, and dominant women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko defends her title against top contender Jennifer Maia.
