A heavyweight rematch between Junior dos Santos and Stefan Struve is set to headline the UFC’s return to Halifax, Nova Scotia, early next year in Canada.
UFC officials on Wednesday announced that dos Santos vs. Struve 2 would headline UFC Fight Night 105 on Feb. 19 at the Scotiabank Centre.
Having spent the majority of 2016 on the sidelines following shoulder surgery in April, dos Santos (18-4) is hoping to get back to championship form in 2017. He defeated Ben Rothwell in his lone fight of 2016, but having lost to Alistair Overeem in late 2015, dos Santos needs to get a win over Struve to keep moving towards his ultimate goal of regaining the UFC heavyweight title.
Once streaking toward the title, Struve (28-8) had his career momentum disrupted after he was discovered to be suffering from a heart condition in 2013. After being cleared to return to the Octagon more than a year later, he lost two of his first three bouts, but has since turned a corner and put together back-to-back victories over Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Daniel Omielanczuk.
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While it’s an important fight for both men, for Struve, this fight is also his opportunity to exact a measure of revenge, having lost via TKO stoppage to dos Santos in February of 2009.
Other bouts announced on Wednesday for UFC Fight Night Halifax include Elias Theodorou (12-1) vs. Cezar Ferreira (12-5), Nordine Taleb (11-3) vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio (24-3), Jack Marshman (21-5) vs. Thiago Santos (13-5), Alessandro Ricci (10-4) vs. Alvaro Herrera (9-4), and Aiemann Zahabi (6-0) vs. Reginaldo Vieira (14-4).
