Bantamweights will collide at UFC on ESPN 18.
Nate Maness and Luke Sanders will square off at the Nov. 28 event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Multiple people with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Maness (12-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) returns for his sophomore UFC bout after a successful first outing against Johnny Munoz by unanimous decision in August. Maness, 29, has won back-to-back fights. His lone career loss came against former UFC fighter Taylor Lapilus.
Sanders (13-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) has not competed since a February 2019 TKO win vs. former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao. Most recently scheduled to fight in August against Chris Gutierrez, Sanders withdrew from the fight for undisclosed reasons.
With the addition, the UFC on ESPN 18 lineup includes:
- Curtis Blaydes vs. Derrick Lewis
- Jonathan Pearce vs. Sean Woodson
- Norma Dumont vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith
- Josh Parisian vs. Parker Porter
- Gina Mazany vs. Rachael Ostovich
- Malcolm Gordon vs. Su Mudaerji
- Rafael Fiziev vs. Renato Moicano
- Devin Clark vs. Anthony Smith
- Miguel Baeza vs. Takashi Sato
- Amir Albazi vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
- Martin Day vs. Anderson Dos Santos
- Bill Algeo vs. Spike Carlyle
- Nate Maness vs. Luke Sanders
