A heavyweight bout with title shot ramifications has been added to UFC 195. Contenders and top-five ranked fighters Stipe Miocic (13-2, 7-2 UFC) and Andrei Arlovski (25-10 1 NC, 14-4 UFC) will meet in the co-main event of the January 2 event from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The UFC confirmed the news on Wednesday following an initial report by the Los Angeles Times.
Miocic was scheduled to fight on this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 76 event from Dublin, Ireland, against Ben Rothwell, but was forced out of the bout due to injury. Miocic said he wouldn’t be out of action for long, and was quickly booked for a different fight against Arlovski. Rothwell campaigned for the fight with Arlovski, but ultimately didn’t get it, and he is rumored to be on stand-by in the event Junior Dos Santos or Alistair Overeem are forced out of their scheduled bout on December 19.
Miocic is coming off a dominant fifth-round TKO win over Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 65 in May. He is 4-1 in his last five fights, with the lone loss coming to Junior Dos Santos in a close fight that won “Fight Of The Night” honors at UFC On FOX 13 in December.
Arlovski will go into the bout riding a six-fight win streak, one that was thought to have secured him the next potential title shot. However, after his lackluster win over Frank Mir at UFC 191 in September, he will be looking to solidify his title shot opportunity with a win over Miocic. Arlovski is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion who found himself out of the promotion for years, but he has won four straight fights since returning to the company in 2014.
UFC 195 will air on pay-per-view and be headlined by UFC Welterweight Champion Robbie Lawler making his second title defense, this time against former Interim UFC Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit.