At UFC 306, aka ‘Riyadh Season Noche FC’ at The Sphere in Las Vegas on September 14th has it’s first fight booking with the news that Michel Pereira will fight Anthony Hernandez.
The 30-year-old Pereira is riding an impressive eight-fight winning streak heading into this fight that includes victories at both welterweight and middleweight.
Pereira has fought the majority of his 5-year UFC campaign so far at 170lbs, and his latest winning streak includes victories over the likes of Santiago Ponzinibbio, Andre Fialho and Niko Price there.
However, mid-way through last year Pereira decided to move up to 185lbs and has continued to find success there too, claiming a TKO victory over Andre Petroski, a submission finish over Michel Oleksiejczuk and most recently another submission finish against Igor Poteira in May.
That leaves Pereira ranked No.13 in the division heading into his next fight against the also 30-year-old Hernandez, who is one place below him at No.14.
Hernandez is also on a solid winning streak, having won five fights in a row over the past three years. It’s a run that began with a notable submission victory over BJJ ace Rodolfo Vieira, followed by a win on the scorecards againts Josh Fremd.
Then came a submission finish against Marc-Andre Barriault, a TKO finish of Edmen Shahbazyan and in Feburary of this year a rear-naked choke finish of Roman Kopylov.
Pereira vs. Hernandez is the only fight booked so far for The Sphere show, but with the UFC brass already having pumped $17 million into pre-fight production for this one-off event at the spectacular venue in Las Vegas and Riyadh Season now combining forces with the promotion for it then it’s safe to say there’s going to be a stacked line-up here.
