UFC heavyweight Todd Duffee will return sooner than expected.
The promotion today made official a quintet of bouts for the upcoming UFC on ESPN+ 16 card, including a heavyweight bout between Duffee and Jeff Hughes. The fights were first reported Tuesday by Vancouver newspaper The Province.
Additional bouts confirmed include Glover Teixeira (29-7 MMA, 12-5 UFC) vs. Nikita Krylov (24-6 MMA, 6-4 UFC), Antonio Carlos Junior (10-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) vs. Uriah Hall (14-9 MMA, 7-7 UFC) vs. Andrew Sanchez (11-4, 4-2 UFC) vs. David Branch (22-6, 4-5 UFC) and Marcin Tybura (17-4 MMA, 4-3 UFC) vs. Augusto Sakai (13-1-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC).
UFC on ESPN+ 16 takes place Sept. 14 at a venue to be announced in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The event’s main card airs on ESPN+.
In an April interview with MMA Junkie Radio, Duffee (9-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) indicated his return timeline was unknown and said he may need another knee surgery. He recently moved to Las Vegas to do physical therapy full-time at the UFC Performance Institute. A comeback this past July was nixed by a crazy health scare that extended Duffee’s layoff of over three years. Most recently, he was knocked out by ex-champ Frank Mir in July 2015 at UFC Fight Night 71.
Hughes, a Contender Series vet, returns to the cage after a split-call loss to Maurice Greene in his debut in March.
Teixeira hopes to make it three in a row after a second-round submission of Ion Cuțelaba at UFC on ESPN+ 8 in April. The onetime title challenger is 7-4 since a loss to current champ Jon Jones.
Krylov returns to the cage after his own second-round submission in a bout against Ovince Saint Preux, which put him back in the win column after a submission loss to Jan Blachowicz in his first fight since leaving the promotion for a tour of the international circuit.
Tybura has been on a 1-3 skid since a three-fight win streak upped his stock. Most recently, he was stopped by Shamil Abdurakhimov at UFC on ESPN+ 7.
Sakai has been on a tear. The Brazilian signed with the UFC after a stint on the Contender Series and picked up wins over Chase Sherman and ex-champ Andrei Arlovski.
For more on the UFC on ESPN+ 16, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
