The lineup for UFC
278 appears to be nearly complete, as the Las Vegas-based
promotion announced 12 bouts for the Aug. 20 card on Monday.
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Among the notable new additions is a heavyweight showdown pitting
Alexander
Romanov against Marcin
Tybura and a flyweight tilt between Amir Albazi
and Francisco
Figueiredo.
UFC 278 takes place at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah and is
headlined by a welterweight title clash between Kamaru
Usman and Leon
Edwards. Also confirmed for the event is a bantamweight fight
between Jose Aldo and
Merab
Dvalishvili and a middleweight scrap between Paulo Costa
and Luke
Rockhold.
The following bouts were also announced for UFC 278: Leonardo
Santos vs. Jared
Gordon at lightweight; Yanan Wu vs.
Lucie
Pudilova at bantamweight; Tyson Pedro
vs. Harry
Hunsucker at light heavyweight; Daniel
Lacerda vs. Victor
Altamirano at flyweight; Qileng Aori
vs. Jay
Perrin at bantamweight; A.J.
Fletcher vs. Ange Loosa at
welterweight and Sean
Woodson vs. Luis
Saldana at featherweight.
With 16 consecutive victories to begin his professional tenure,
Romanov has emerged as an intriguing prospect in the heavyweight
division. The 31-year-old Moldovan has finished four of his five
opponents in UFC competition and is coming off a first-round
submission of Chase
Sherman on April 30.
Tybura had a five-bout winning streak snapped in his last outing,
when he dropped a unanimous decision to Alexander
Volkov at UFC 267 this past October. The former M-1 Global
champion is 9-6 over the course of his tenure with the UFC.
Sweden’s Albazi has been victorious in 14 of 15 professional
appearances and has kicked off his UFC career with back-to-back
triumphs over Malcolm
Gordon and Zhalgas
Zhumagulov. Prior to signing with the UFC, Albazi had stints
with Brave FC and Bellator MMA.
Figueiredo, meanwhile, has won two of his first three UFC bouts.
Most recently, the brother of flyweight champion Deiveson
Figueiredo submitted Lacerda with a kneebar at UFC on ESPN 35
on April 30.