'Shogun' Rua vs. Volkan Oezdemir set for UFC Fight Night 129 in Chile

A light heavyweight bout between former UFC champ Mauricio Rua and Volkan Oezdemir is set for May’s UFC Fight Night 129 lineup.

UFC officials today announced the matchup between Rua (25-10 MMA, 9-8 UFC) and Oezdemir (15-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC).

UFC Fight Night 129 will take place May 19 in Santiago, Chile. The event goes down at the Movistar Arena and will air on FS1 following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

Rua, 36, will return to action for the first time in more than a year at UFC Fight Night 129. He hasn’t competed since a third-round TKO of Gian Villante at UFC Fight Night 106 in March 2017. The performance pushed the Brazilian’s winning streak to three fights, which is the longest of his more than 10-year UFC career.

“Shogun,” No. 13 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light heavyweight rankings, was supposed to rematch Ovince Saint Preux at UFC Fight Night 117 in September, but was forced to withdraw from the contest due to a knee injury which required surgery.

For No. 7-ranked Oezdemir, a matchup with Rua represents an opportunity to get a win over a former UFC champion. “No Time” came short of the 205-pound belt himself in his most recent octagon outing, succumbing to a second-round TKO against Daniel Cormier at UFC 220 in January.

The loss to Cormier marked the end of Oezdemir’s five-fight winning streak, including three-straight under the UFC banner.

The latest UFC Fight Night 129 card now includes:

• Volkan Oezdemir vs. Mauricio Rua
• Chad Laprise vs. Vicente Luque
• Guido Cannetti vs. Diego Rivas
• Alexa Grasso vs. Tatiana Suarez
• Poliana Botelho vs. Syuri Kondo
• Andrea Lee vs. Veronica Macedo
• Henry Briones vs. Frankie Saenz
• Jared Cannonier vs. Dominick Reyes

For more on UFC Fight Night 129, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.