A welterweight bout between UFC veteran Thiago Alves (18-8 MMA, 10-5 UFC) and promotion newcomer Papy Abedi (8-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has been added to November's UFC 138 event.
UFC officials today announced that verbal agreements are in place for the fight.
As MMAjunkie first reported Tuesday, UFC 138 takes place Nov. 5 at the 16,000-seat LG Arena at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England.
The night's main card airs on Spike TV (via same-day delay), though it's not clear if Alves vs. Abedi will be part of the broadcast.
Alves, an American Top Team fighter, looks to snap out of a 1-3 skid that began with a UFC 100 title loss to champ Georges St-Pierre. Since then, he's suffered additional decision losses to Jon Fitch and Ricky Story while posting a decision victory over John Howard. Prior to the skid, Alves had posted seven straight UFC victories, which included wins over notables Chris Lytle, Karo Parisyan, Matt Hughes and Josh Koscheck.
Abedi, a 33-year-old Congo-born fighter who signed a four-fight deal with the UFC, heads to the organization with a perfect 8-0 record and seven stoppage victories. Recent wins have come over the likes of Nathan Schouteren (16-12-2), Bohumil Lungrik (14-12) and Nelton Pontes (3-1), all of whom were defeated in the first round.
The judo black belt, who is now based out of Sweden, previously competed as a middleweight.
