Ricardo Lamas vs. Charles Oliveira slated for UFC Fight Night 98 in Mexico

Ricardo Lamas won’t be on the shelf for long after a fight with UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn was canceled.

UFC officials on Wednesday announced that Lamas (16-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC), a onetime UFC featherweight title challenger, is set to fight Charles Oliveira (21-6 MMA, 9-6 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 98. FloCombat.com first reported the bout.

UFC Fight Night 98, which serves as the finale for “The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America 3,” takes place Nov. 5 at Mexico City Arena in Mexico City, Mexico. The main card airs on FS1 following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass, though the bout order hasn’t been finalized.

Lamas, the No. 6 fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings, was scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 97 opposite Penn (16-10-2 MMA, 12-9-2 UFC) on Saturday in Pasay, Manila, Philippines. But Penn suffered an injury that forced him to withdraw from the event, and rather than book a replacement opponent, the promotion opted to cancel the entire affair.

On Tuesday, top-ranked bantamweight Bryan Caraway (21-7 MMA, 6-2 UFC) revealed he had volunteered to save the event, but the decision to cancel had already been made. A subsequent proposal to book him opposite Lamas at UFC Fight Night 98 also failed when negotiations between Caraway’s rep and the promotion broke down.

Lamas now meets No. 11-ranked Oliveira and hopes to rebound from a decision loss to the surging Max Holloway in May at UFC 199. He is 3-2 in the octagon since a failed bid for the title against now-former champ Jose Aldo at UFC 169.

Oliveira also needs redemption after a third-round submission loss to former lightweight champ Anthony Pettis in August at UFC on FOX 21. He’s 1-2 in his past three outings.

The latest UFC Fight Night 98 card now includes:

• Rafael dos Anjos vs. Tony Ferguson
• Marcin Held vs. Diego Sanchez
• Ricardo Lamas vs. Charles Oliveira
• Beneil Dariush vs. Rashid Magomedov
• Max Griffin vs. Erick Montano
• Heather Jo Clark vs. Alexa Grasso
• Felipe Arantes vs. Erik Perez
• Marco Beltran vs. Guido Cannetti
• Henry Briones vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade
• Marco Polo Reyes vs. Jason Novelli
• Chris Avila vs. Enrique Barzola
• Sam Alvey vs. Alex Nicholson
• TBA vs. TBA – “TUF 3: Latin America” lightweight tournament final

For more on UFC Fight Night 98, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.