Exciting middleweight matchup added to UFC London card on July 22

The UFC’s next trip to London is set to take place on July 22, and the event recently saw its headline bout confirmed.

It was hoped that the event would play host to Leon Edwards’ welterweight title defense against Colby Covington. But that is not the case now with Covington recently claiming he’d prefer their clash to take place in the US.

Instead, it was announced by the promotion this week that top-10 ranked heavyweights, Tom Aspinall and Marcin Tybura will face off in the main event in London.

Over the past few weeks, the event has slowly seen other bouts announced too, and it seems like we can now add another to that list.

Reporter Marcel Dorff has taken to Twitter to announce that Bryan Barberena will face off with Makhmud Muradov at the event. He has also confirmed that the fight will take place at 185lbs.

This announcement has since been corroborated by Muradov himself, who posted about the fight on his Instagram, stating the following:

“Good evening dear friends! Many people were interested in the date of the next fight, Alhamdulillah the opponent and the date is known – on July 22, In Sha Allah, we will go to the octagon! Thank you all for your attention and support.”

The bout will be Barberena’s first at 185 lbs. ‘Bam Bam’ has competed at 170lbs for the majority of his octagon career, which dates back to 2014.

His last fight, which coincidentally came in London, saw him submitted by Gunnar Nelson.

Muradov, meanwhile, is coming off two straight losses, and most recently dropped a decision to Caio Borralho.

Prior to this, he’d won three fights in a row, including two straight stoppages of Trevor Smith and Andrew Sanchez.

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UFC London: Who else is fighting on this card?

Outside of the aforementioned headliner between Tom Aspinall and Marcin Tybura, and the newly-announced clash between Makhmud Muradov and Bryan Barberena, additional 10 bouts are reportedly scheduled for the UFC’s trip to London in July.

Amongst these bouts are a clash between top-10 ranked bantamweights Ketlen Vieira and Pannie Kianzad, and a fight pitting UK favourite Molly McCann against Julija Stoliarenko.

Other fights on this card include Marc Diakiese vs. Joel Alvarez, Jai Herbert vs. Fares Ziam, Danny Roberts vs. Jonny Parsons, Yanal Ashmouz vs. Chris Duncan, Jamal Pogues vs. Michael Parkin, Davey Grant vs. Daniel Marcos, Joshua Culibao vs. Lerone Murphy and Andre Fili vs. Nathaniel Wood.

UFC's last London visit came in March, when Leon Edwards defended his welterweight title successfully against former champion Kamaru Usman.

Watch highlights of the UFC’s last trip to London below.