UFC Fight Night 40 adds 9 Bouts Including Guida vs. Kawajiri
Ten bouts have been announced for the UFC’s return to Abu Dhabi and 9 of them have been announced all at once including what will be a Featherweight co-main event of Clay “The Carpenter” Guida (30-14) squaring off with Tatsuya Kawajiri (33-7-2).
After consecutive decision losses to Benson Henderson and Gray Maynard at UFC on Fox 6 Guida defeated Hatus Hioki by split decision in a successful Featherweight debut. “The Carpenter” will now look to rebound from his first ever knock out loss, being stopped by Chad Mendes early in the third round of their UFC 164 meeting.
Kawajiri has won 6 fights in a row, including scoring his 10th win by submission in his UFC debut forcing Sean Soriano to tap out to a rear naked choke. The win was Kawajiri’s 4th out of his last 5 by submission.
Compiling to make of the rest of the card is Jared Rosholt (9-1) meets Daniel Omielanczuk (16-3-1) at Heavyweight, Andrew Craig (9-2) faces Chris Camozzi (19-7) at Middleweight. Rani Yahya (19-8) takes on Johnny Bedford (19-10-1) at Bantamweight, Alptekin Ozkilic (9-2) faces Dustin Ortiz (12-3) at Flyweight, Ramsey Nijem (8-4) squares off with Beneil Dariush at Lightweight, Welterweight John Howard (22-8) and Ryan LaFlare (10-0) will collide, promotional debuting Featherweights Jim Alers (12-1) and Alan Omer (18-3) face off, and Trevor “Hot Sauce” Smith (11-4) clashes with Thales Leites (22-4) at Middleweight.
UFC Fight Night 40: Abu Dhani takes place on April 11 at the United Arab Emirates; and is headlined by former Pride and UFC Heavyweight Champion Antoni Rodrigo Nogueira vs. TUF season 10 win Roy “Big Country” Nelson.