Gian Villante is sticking to heavyweight. But he’ll face another fighter who has moved up in his next outing.
As first revealed (by Villante himself) on the Quick Talks podcast, Villante is expected to face Jake Collier at a UFC event on December 5. That date, which has not been officially announced by the promotion, is expected to feature Bethe Correia’s retirement fight, as well as an important middleweight match-up between Darren Till and Jack Hermansson.
Villante (17-12), a teammate of Chris Weidman at Serra-Longo, is best known as a light heavyweight, although he did fight at heavyweight earlier in his career. He returned to the weight class, making his UFC debut in the division, back in June, when he was submitted by Maurice Greene at UFC on ESPN 12.
Overall, Villante is 2-3 in his last five bouts, and has lost two straight.
Collier’s move up to heavyweight has been even more extreme. In fact, the 31-year old started his UFC career in 2014 at middleweight. He moved to light heavyweight in 2017, going 1-1 in the weight class. Earlier this year, he jumped up to heavyweight against Tom Aspinall, and was knocked out in just forty-five seconds. Collier has traded wins and losses across his entire UFC career.
