UFC Fight Night 117 in Japan continues to take shape

The octagon will return to Japan’s Saitama Super Arena on September 22 for UFC Fight Night 117.

The event will be headlined by a light heavyweight rematch between former division champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and former interim title challenger Ovince Saint Preux.

Rua and “OSP” first met in November of 2014, with Saint Preux emerging victorious by way of first-round knockout.

Since that time, Mauricio has rattle off three-straight victories, his latest being a third-round TKO win over Gian Villante in March of 2017.

Meanwhile, Ovince Saint Preux has gone 3-4 since defeating “Shogun” in 2014. “OSP’s” most recent effort saw him score a submission victory over Marcos Rogerio de Lima this past April.

The victory snapped a three-fight losing skid for Saint Preux, who had previously dropped fights to Jon Jones, Jimi Manuwa and Volkan Oezdemir respectively.

Also on the card is a key women’s strawweight scrap featuring top contender Claudia Gadelha taking on Jessica Andrade.

If that wasn’t enough to get you excited, former Glory Light Heavyweight champion Gokhan Saki will make his UFC debut at the event. The kickboxing legend will square off with Henrique da Silva on the evenings main card.

The latest UFC Fight Night 117 card now includes:

Mauricio Rua vs. Ovince Saint Preux – Light heavyweight
Jessica Andrade vs. Claudia Gadelha – Strawweight
Henrique da Silva vs. Gokhan Saki – Light heavyweight
Jussier Formiga vs. Ulka Sasaki – Flyweight
Chan-Mi Jeon vs. Syuri Kondo – Strawweight
Daichi Abe vs. Hyun Gyu Lim – Welterweight
Alex Morono vs. Keita Nakamura – Welterweight
Rolando Dy vs. Teruto Ishihara – Featherweight
Mizuto Hirota vs. Charles Rosa – Featherweight