A welterweight fight between Demian Maia and Belal Muhammad has been booked for UFC 263 on June 12th.
Muhammad’s last fight was a controversial one as he appeared to be coming off second best early in his short-notice fight with Leon Edwards last month, but then suffered an eye poke early in the second round that left him unable to continue, leading to a no-contest ruling.
Afterwards it seemed as if an immediate rematch was possible, but Edwards quickly went off the idea in favor of pursuing higher-profile opportunities and was recently booked to fight Nate Diaz instead, much to Muhammad’s frustration.
However, Muhammad now has another big fight to sink his teeth into as he looks to get back to the form that saw him win eight of his previous nine fights.
In Maia he’s facing a true veteran of the sport, with the 43-year-old still holding down the No.8 spot in the division despite having suffered a TKO loss against Gilbert Burns last time out.
Before that the jiu-jitsu ace had shown he is still a threat in the division by winning a trio of fights, including submitting both Lyman Good and Ben Askren.
Maia vs Muhammad joins a UFC 263 card that will be headlined by a flyweight title rematch between Deiveson figueiredo and Brandon Moreno.
