Heavyweight star Mark Hunt will fight Curtis Blaydes at UFC 221 in Perth, Australia on February 1st.
The 43-year-old Hunt was recently sidelined by the UFC after claiming in an article that he was suffering from signs of brain damage, including slurred speech and memory loss.
However, Hunt would later insist his words had been taken out of context and after being forced to undertake a full assessment of his brain health at the Lou Ruvo Center in Las Vegas, Hunt has since been given the all-clear to continue competing.
Despite spending several months on the bench, Hunt still had two fights in 2017, suffering a KO loss to Alistair Overeem back in March, before rebounding with a TKO victory over Derrick Lewis, leaving him ranked No.5 in the division.
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old Blaydes has stayed active in 2017 with a trio of victories over Adam Milstead, Daniel Omielanczuk and Oleksiy Oilynyk.
That took his overall MMA record to 9-1 and saw him rise to No.9 in the divisional rankings, and he’ll now undertake his toughest test since losing by TKO to current title contender Francis Ngannou in his UFC debut last year.
Hunt Vs Blaydes joins a UFC 221 card that looks set to be headlined by a middleweight title fight between newly promoted champion Robert Whittaker and Luke Rockhold after GSP officially vacated the belt he won just last month.
