After a triumphant return to the UFC, John Howard has his next fight lined up. “Doomsday” will take on a fellow hard-hitting welterweight in Siyar Bahadurzada on the preliminary card of UFC 168 in Las Vegas on December 28th. UFC officials tweeted the news last night:
Welterweight bout @SiyarTheGreat vs @JohnDoomsday just added to #UFC168.
— UFC News (@UFCNews) October 4, 2013
Howard (21-8) had been out of the UFC since 2011 but he won 6 of his ensuing 7 fights and became the CES middleweight champion in Rhode Island. He got his wish to fight on the UFC’s Boston show in August 17th, and he upset Uriah Hall by split decision to continue his hot streak. At just 5’7″ the odds of him staying at middleweight in the UFC were slim and none, so he’s returning to welterweight, where he compiled a 7-3 record in the weight class.
Bahadurzada (21-5-1) lost a unanimous decision to Dong Hyun Kim at UFC on Fuel 8 in Japan, which snapped his 7 fight winning streak. Unfortunately for the Afghanistan native, he’s had to pull out of more fights because of injury than actual UFC fights. He’s withdrawn from bouts against Erick Silva, Thiago Alves, and Robbie Lawler dating back to last year.
UFC 168 features a middleweight title rematch between champion Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva, plus a women’s bantamweight title rematch between Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate.
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