Junior Dos Santos and Fabricio Werdum are running it back, but with a twist.
The two former UFC heavyweight champions are set to battle a second time, but in this go with slightly different rules than their UFC 90 fight back in 2008. Dos Santos and Werdum will fight under bareknuckle MMA rules, rather than traditional MMA with gloves.
This bout will go down in the main event of a Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA 5, set to go down on Sept. 8 at the VySar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla.
The news was first reported by Sherdog and later confirmed by MMA Junkie through sources.
Dos Santos, 39, hasn’t competed since suffering a shoulder injury that cost him a TKO loss to Yorgan De Castro back in May 2022 at Eagle FC 47 in Miami. Prior to that, the Brazilian was competing inside the octagon. His loss to De Castro is his first and only fight so far since his UFC release.
On the other hand, Werdum was last seen in May 2021 when he debuted for PFL. Originally a TKO loss to Renan Ferreira, Werdum had his defeat overturned to a no contest after Ferreira appeared to tap out from submission before the finish. Prior to that bout, Werdum submitted Alexander Gustafsson to close his UFC career back in the summer of 2020.
Here is the current card for Gamebred Bareknuckle 5:
- Junior Dos Santos vs. Fabricio Werdum
- Renan Barao vs. Sean Soriano
- Brandon Jenkins vs. Anthony Njokuani
- Brandon Davis vs. TBD
- Irwin Rivera vs. Joshua Weems
