Fabio Maldonado Revelas March UFC Bout with Gian Villante

Fabio Maldonado on Saturday revealed that he is expecting to fight Gian Villante in his next UFC bout. Maldonado announced the fight on his Facebook page.

UFC officials have yet to confirm the bout or the event, but the fight is likely to take place at a UFC Fight Night in Brazil in late march.

Combate.com recently reported that the UFC was in advanced negotiations to hold the event on March 23 in Natal, Brazil.

Fabricio Werdum also recently confirmed that he expects to fight Travis Browne in a headlining bout in late March, which is expected to be UFC Fight Night 38 in Brazil.

Maldonado (20-6) was on the brink of his UFC exit when he stepped in as a late replacement to face Glover Teixeira at UFC 153 in late 2012. He lost that fight, but put on such a heartfelt performance that he remained on the roster.

He has since recovered with back-to-back victories over Roger Hollett and Joey Beltran. The victory over Beltran was his most recent, coming at UFC Fight Night 29.

Villante (11-4) lost his UFC debut to Ovince St. Preux in April, but rebounded with a TKO stoppage of Cody Donovan at UFC 167 in November.