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Former Cage Warriors light heavyweight king Modestas Bukauskas will make his first UFC foray against Vinicius Moreira Castro on July 15.
Bukaukas confirmed the pairing on Twitter following an initial report from MMAjunkie.com. The UFC event takes place at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. MMAjunkie also reported two other bouts for the July 15 card: Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Aleksander Doskalchuk at flyweight and Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Mounir Lazzez at welterweight.
Bukauskas will enter his Octagon debut on a five-bout winning streak, with all of those victories coming inside the distance. An alum of the Brazilian version of Dana White’s Contender Series, Castro has lost his first three UFC appearances — all inside of a round.
Dagestan’s Ulanbekov has lost just once in 11 professional outings, a split-decision setback at the hands of fellow UFC talent Zhalgas Zhumagulov in a title bout at Fight Nights Global 88. A native of the Ukraine, Doskalchuk is a former M-1 Challenge flyweight champion and brings an eight-fight winning streak to his UFC debut.
Alhassan is 4-1 in the UFC with four first-round KO/TKO finishes but was only recently cleared to return after being found not guilty on sexual assault charges earlier this year. Tunisia’s Lazzez is coming off back-to-back first-round TKO victories and is 9-1 as a professional overall.