A light-heavyweight fight between Paul Craig and Volkan Oezdemir has been confirmed for UFC Fight Night 211 event in London, England on July 23rd.
The 34-year-old Craig has become an unlikely success story in the 205lb ranks, emerging from a uneven 3-4 start to his time in the UFC to reach the stage where he is now riding a six-fight unbeaten run.
Along the way he’s shown himself to be a deadly finisher on the mat, having submitted the likes of Nikita Krylov, Gadzhimurad Antigulov and Vinicius Moreira, while also TKO’ing Jamahal Hill and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua.
That’s left Craig ranked No.8 in the division, one spot below the 9th placed Oezdemir, who has been having a rougher time of it in the division in recent years, picking up just two wins from his last seven fights.
That slump began with his TKO defeat against the champion at the time, Daniel Cormier back in 2018 and was followed by further defeats against Anthony Smith and Dominick Reyes.
Oezdemir then got back on track with victories over Ilir Latifi and Aleksandar Rakic, but he’s since suffered a KO loss to Jiri Prochazka and a unanimous decision defeat to Magomed Ankalaev.
Craig vs. Oezdemir joins a UFC Fight Night 211 card in London that will be headlined by Tom Aspinall vs. Curtis Blaydes, while Darren Till faces Jack Hermansson and Alexander Gustafsson fights Nikita Krylov.
