A welterweight bout between Jake Ellenberger and Tarec Saffiedine is now headed to UFC 172 in Baltimore in April.
Originally the fight had been scheduled to headline the UFC’s first show of the year in Singapore, but Ellenberger had to pull out and former Strikeforce champion Saffiedine ended up winning his promotional debut against Hyun Gyu Lim instead, leaving him as the No.9 ranked contender in the division.
Ellenberger is currently ranked No.5 despite a lackluster performance in a decision loss to Rory MacDonald last time out, with other recent wins over Nate Marquardt and Jay Heiron together with an overall 8-3 record in the UFC helping him remain as one of the division’s top contenders.
UFC 172 marks the UFC’s first ever trip to Baltimore and will be headlined by a light-heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira.
No other fights have been announced for the April 26th card as yet so it’s unclear at this stage whether the Ellenberger Vs saffiedine fight will serve as the co-main event or not.