A trio of bouts has been added to October’s UFC Fight Night 29 card when the promotion heads to Brazil for the sixth time in 2013.
Bantamweight contenders Raphael Assuncao (20-4, 4-1 UFC) and T.J. Dillashaw (8-1, 4-1 UFC) will tangle in a bout rescheduled from UFC Fight Night 28, while Hacran Dias (21-2-1, 1-1 UFC) and Rodrigo Damm (11-6, 2-1 UFC) will meet in a featherweight bout, and light heavyweights Joey Beltran (14-8 1 NC, 3-5 1 NC UFC) and Fabio Maldonado (19-6, 2-3 UFC) square off in a bout that sees both men needing a win.
Combate first reported the Assuncao vs. Dillashaw re-booking while MMAFighting.com reported the Dias vs. Damm and Beltran vs. Maldonado fights.
Assuncao and Dillashaw both lost their UFC debuts but have bounced back with four-fight win streaks. Assuncao lost to Erik Koch at UFC 128 in March 2011 in his UFC debut, but has since scored wins over Johnny Eduardo, Issei Tamura, Mike Easton and Vaughan Lee to catapult himself into the title picture. Dillashaw lost his UFC debut to John Dodson in the finals of the bantamweight tournament at The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale, but has gone on to defeat Walel Watson, Vaughan Lee, Issei Tamura and Hugo Viana. Both men are ranked in the top ten in the UFC’s bantamweight rankings.
Dias will be making his third appearance inside the Octagon. He last fought in May at UFC On FX 8 where he was defeated by Nik Lentz. That ended Dias’ nine-fight win streak that was capped with a win over Yuri Alcantara at UFC 147 in June 2012. Damm has won two of his three UFC bouts. He looks for back-to-back wins after defeating Mizuto Hirota at UFC On FUEL TV 10 in June.
Beltran and Maldonado are both fighting for a win as the loser could see themselves released from the UFC. Beltran returns from a drug suspension after seeing his December win over Igor Pokrajac overturned into a no contest. That left Beltran winless in his last four UFC bouts as his last Octagon win came in June 2011 over Aaron Rosa. Maldonado ended his three-fight losing skid when defeated Roger Hollett at UFC On FX 8 in May.
UFC Fight Night 29 takes place on Oct. 9 from Barueri, Brazil, and the main card is expected to air on FOX Sports 1. The event will be headlined by a five-round welterweight bout as Demian Maia takes on former title challenger Jake Shields.
