Brian Ebersole vs. John Howard slated for UFC 178 in Las Vegas

A welterweight bout between Brian Ebersole (50-16-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) and John Howard (22-9 MMA, 6-4 UFC) has been booked for this fall’s UFC 178 event.

UFC officials recently announced the bout.

UFC 178 takes place Sept. 27 in Las Vegas, though a specific venue has not yet been announced. The main card, including a headliner between light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson, airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and MMAjunkie.

Ebersole vs. Howard will likely be part of the prelims.

Ebersole fights for the first time since November, when he suffered a decision loss to Rick Story. Prior to that, the 33-year-old Thailand-based American dropped a split-decision defeat to James Head. The back-to-back losses followed a career-high 11-fight winning streak for Ebersole that included UFC victories over Chris Lytle, Dennis Hallman, Claude Patrick and T.J. Waldburger upon his arrival in the promotion.

Ebersole’s job could be on the line when he meets Howard, who went 4-3 in his first UFC stint before returning to the regional circuit. There, the 31-year-old former middleweight went 6-1 and got an invitation back to the UFC. He then won his first two fights, over Uriah Hall and Siyar Bahadurzada, before a decision loss to fast-rising Ryan LaFlare in his most recent outing.

The latest UFC 178 card now includes:

• Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson
• Tim Kennedy vs. Yoel Romero
• Dominick Cruz vs. Takeya Mizugaki
• Amanda Nunes vs. Cat Zingano
• Brian Ebersole vs. John Howard

For more on UFC 178, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Brian Ebersole)