September’s UFC Pittsburgh gets five new fights

Over the weekend, we learned that the UFC’s September 16 return to Pittsburgh, PA, will be headlined by a middleweight clash between former Strikeforce and UFC champ Luke Rockhold and former two-division World Series of Fighting champ David Branch. Since then, the promotion has confirmed five more fights for this anticipated UFC Pittsburgh card.

The most high profile of these newly announced matchups will occur at middleweight, just like the main event. This fight will pit flashy striking specialist Uriah Hall against Polish powerhouse Krzysztof Jotko.

Jotko was recently tasked with welcoming David Branch back into the UFC fold, but came up short in this fight, losing a split decision. This decision loss was preceded by an impressive, five-fight streak, which was highlighted by wins over Thales Leites and Tamdan McCrory. His only other pro loss occured in his UFC debut, when he was submitted by Magnus Cedenblad.

Hall, meanwhile, will enter this fight on an unfortunate three-fight losing-streak. This skid has seen him succumb to punches dealt by Gegard Mousasi and Derek Brunson, and give up a decision to interim UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker. Hall preceded these losses with a career-best TKO win over Gegard Mousasi.

The other fights recently announced for this UFC Pittsburgh card include a welterweight scrap between the 12th-ranked Kamaru Usman and Sergio Moraes, a lightweight bout between Gilbert Burns and Jason Saggo, a heavyweight battle between Justin Ledet and Dmitriy Sosnovskiy, and another heavyweight showdown between Anthony Hamilton and Daniel Spitz.

This anticipated UFC Pittsburgh card, also called UFC Fight Night 116, will also feature a middleweight bout between Hector Lombard and Anthony Smith. It is also expected to include a welterweight scrap between Mike Perry and Thiago Alves.

The card will go head-to-head with the anticipated Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin middleweight boxing match.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/23/2017.