The end-of-year UFC 168 event in Las Vegas just got a boost by landing a major heavyweight fight between Josh Barnett and Travis Browne.
Barnett got his long-awaited return to the UFC off to the best possible start at UFC 164 last month when he blitzed Frank Mir in the first round and earned a TKO victory.
Prior to that Barnett had been plying his trade in the Strikeforce organization for the last few years, making his way to their heavyweight grand-prix final where he lost out by decision to Daniel Cormier.
Browne has also being doing big things, earning two ‘Knockout Of The Night’ awards in a row by decisively finishing both Gabriel Gonzaga and most recently Alistair Overeem in the first round.
That’s helped put a disappointing first round TKO loss to Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva in October of last year, the only loss of his seventeen fight professional career to date, firmly in his rear-view mirror and again marked him out as one of the division’s most dangerous fighters.
This is going to be a very important bout for both men as there’s not exactly a long list of worthy title contenders in the UFC’s heavyweight division at the moment.
Currently Browne is ranked No.5 and Barnett No.6 in the world, and with Daniel Cormier (No.2) expected to move down to light-heavyweight after his next fight and Antonio Silva (No.3) recently having had an unsuccessful title shot, the winner here could find themselves placed firmly into the title picture.
Barnett Vs Browne is the third fight to be officially confirmed for UFC 168 on December 28th which will be headlined by the eagerly anticipated middleweight title rematch between Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva.
With TUF 18 coaches and mortal enemies Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate also set to scrap for the woman’s bantamweight title in the co-main event UFC 168 already stands out as one of the biggest shows of the year.
