Ask and you shall receive.
It looks like the UFC heard Dan Ige’s recent callout and obliged, booking him against former two-division Bellator champion Patricio Freire for UFC 318 – a pay-per-view event that’s set to go down July 19 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. MMA Junkie confirmed the news with two sources following a report from Super Lutas on Tuesday.
Both Ige (19-9 MMA, 11-8 UFC) and Freire (36-8 MMA, 0-1 UFC) fought at UFC 314 in April in different bouts. Ige stopped fellow veteran Sean Woodson, while Freire lost his UFC debut in a unanimous decision against Yair Rodriguez.
With the victory, Ige was able to snap a two-fight losing skid that had him dropping decisions against top contenders Diego Lopes and Lerone Murphy. On the other hand, Freire, who’s arguably the most successful fighter in Bellator history, fell into a 1-3 rut. Prior to debuting for the UFC, “Pitbull” stopped Jeremy Kennedy and lost to Chihiro Suzuki and Sergio Pettis.
Current UFC 318 lineup
- Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier
- Brendan Allen vs. Marvin Vettori
- Islam Dulatov vs. Adam Fugitt
- Amanda Ribas vs. Tabatha Ricci
- Patricio Freire vs. Dan Ige
- Ikram Aliskerov vs. Brunno Ferreira
- Neil Magny vs. Gunnar Nelson
- Vinicius Oliveira vs. Kyler Phillips
- Nicolle Caliari vs. Carli Judice
- Jimmy Crute vs. Marcin Prachnio
- Francisco Prado vs. Nikolay Veretennikov
- Ateba Gautier vs. Robert Valentin
