Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. After over two years away, Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight
Michel
Prazeres is ready to get back in action. Late Thursday night, Georgian outlet
Ag. Fight reported that Prazeres (26-3) was gearing up to make
his return to the Octagon on June
26. The unnumbered UFC Fight Night event on this date does not
currently have a headliner, location or venue established, as it
could take place in the UFC Apex in Las Vegas or elsewhere
depending on the status of the coronavirus pandemic. On this card,
he will be squaring off with unbeaten Shavkat
Rakhmonov (13-0) in the welterweight division. The matchup has
since been confirmed by multiple outlets as well as Rakhmonov
himself on his Instagram.
Prazeres was suspended in 2020 for failed drug tests the previous
year, with his results showing the anabolic steroid boldenone and
its metabolites in multiple tests. His two-year suspension was
dated retroactively to the date of his tests, putting him on the
shelf officially from March 2019 to March 2021. The test came after
a decision loss to Ismail
Naurdiev at UFC Fight Night 145, which snapped an eight-fight
win streak he had amassed from 2015 to 2019. Along the way, the
Brazilian defeated the likes of Gilbert
Burns, Zak
Cummings and Desmond
Green.
Kazakhstan’s Rakhmonov made a statement in his UFC debut at UFC 254
in October 2020, where he tapped the durable Alex
Oliveira in the opening frame. Before joining the promotion,
“Nomad” captured and defended the M-1 Challenge welterweight throne in 2019, knocking
out
Tiago Varejao Lacerda to put the UFC on notice. All 13 of
Rakhmonov’s victories have come by stoppage, with a nearly equal
number of knockouts compared to submissions.