A light heavyweight scrap that pins two New Englanders against one another is the first addition to the UFC Fight Night event on Aug. 21.
Massachusetts’ Fabio Cherant will seek his first promotional victory when he fights Connecticut’s William Knight. The card doesn’t currently have a publicly-known location or venue.
Two people with knowledge of the matchup confirmed the booking to MMA Junkie but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Cherant (7-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) won the LFA light heavyweight championship in February when he defeated Myron Dennis via unanimous decision. In March, he took a short-notice UFC debut fight against Alonzo Menifield and was submitted in 71 seconds. Cherant suffered broken ribs in the fight.
Meanwhile, Knight has split his UFC outings to date. Following a dominant unanimous decision win over Aleksa Camur in September, Knight was grinded en route to a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Da Un Jung in April.
Both fighters rose through similar regional ranks in New England, but have never crossed paths. Cherant competed four times for notable Rhode Island-based promotion CES MMA. Knight did so three times.
