Rafael dos Anjos will defend his belt for the first time against Donald Cerrone in a rematch.
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Dos Anjos defeated Cerrone by unanimous decision in their first bout in August 2013.
The event’s date and location was announced on Wednesday night, as it will take place on December 19 in Orlando, and it will be the second straight Fox event to feature a title fight.
Earlier this week Cowboy had threatened to move up to welterweight to get a fight if Dos Anjos wasn’t ready by the end of the year but that won’t be necessary as the UFC have managed to put together the ideal fight to close out the year. The Brazilian has won nine of his past 10 scraps.
Dos Anjos said he had a torn MCL in the weeks leading up to the fight against Pettis, which has kept him on the sidelines since then.
Dos Anjos took on Nurmagomedov on the preliminaries, in what many considered Nurmagomedov’s biggest test as a rising star. “Cowboy” is on a 7-fight winning streak after losing to dos Anjos; five of those wins were stoppages and four of those finishes earned the Jackson’s MMA fighter post-fight bonuses. Then he got a TKO against John Makdessi when Makdessi couldn’t continue after Cerrone broke his jaw with a head kick.
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Cerrone (28-6) is on a division-best eight-fight win streak. Cerrone went so far as to accuse dos Anjos of using performance-enhancing drugs.
