The UFC booked a heavyweight match for its upcoming event in Brazil after a series of fight cancellations hit the card.
Days after Ketlen Vieira and Antonio Carlos Junior were forced out of UFC Sao Paulo fights with Tonya Evinger and Elias Theodorou due to injuries, Chase Sherman and Augusto Sakai agreed to meet on Sept. 22, sources confirmed the news to MMA Fighting following a report by FloCombat.
Sherman (11-5) will attempt to rebound from back-to-back losses to Shamil Abdurakhimov and Justin Willis in a 2-4 run in the UFC. “The Vanilla Gorilla”, who turns 29 in November, scored his only Octagon wins over Rashad Coulter and Damian Grabowski.
Sakai (11-1-1) earned a UFC contract after making quick work of Marcos Conrado in the first episode of Dana White Contender Series Brazil, which aired last week in Brazil. The 27-year-old heavyweight went 4-1-1 in Bellator between 2013 and 2017, suffering his only defeat in a close split decision to Cheick Kongo.
UFC Sao Paulo will be headlined by Jimi Manuwa vs. Thiago Santos at light heavyweight. The updated fight card can be seen below.
Jimi Manuwa vs. Thiago Santos
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Sam Alvey
Alex Oliveira vs. Carlo Pedersoli Jr.
Charles Oliveira vs. Christos Giagos
Sergio Moraes vs. Ben Saunders
Thales Leites vs. Hector Lombard
Francisco Trinaldo vs. Evan Dunham
Elizeu Zaleski vs. Belal Muhammad
Chase Sherman vs. Augusto Sakai
Livia Renata Souza vs. Alex Chambers
Luiz Henrique vs. Ryan Spann
Renan Barao vs. Andre Ewell
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