Ed Herman will face Rafael Natal at UFC Fight Night 40 on May 10

Ed Herman will face Rafael Natal at UFC Fight Night 4o on May 10. UFC officials announced on Thursday that they two middleweights have verbally agreed to the bout.

Herman and Natal were expected to meet at UFC 167 on Nov. 16, 2013, but Natal was pulled from the match-up to face Tim Kennedy in the UFC Fight for the Troops 3 main event after Kennedy’s original opponent, Lyoto Machida, was yanked from the bout in favor of a match-up with Mark Munoz.

Herman (21-12, 1NC) faced Thales Leites at UFC 167 instead and lost via unanimous decision. Natal (17-5-1) suffered a knockout loss to Kennedy in his last outing on Nov. 6, 2013.

UFC Fight Night 40 takes place on May 10 at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. It will be the second event the organization has held in Ohio’s third largest city, and the first time the UFC has been there since 2007.