Featherweights Edson Barboza and Steve Garcia are set to clash at the upcoming UFC Fight Night event scheduled on Feb. 22 with a location for the card still to be determined.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Tuesday.
A 36-fight veteran with 14 years spent in the UFC, Barboza has a reputation as one of the nastiest strikers on the entire roster. When the Brazilian returns in early 2025, he’s looking to get back on a winning track after coming up short in a Fight of the Night against Lerone Murphy back in May.
That was actually Barboza’s third consecutive fight to earn him a bonus after he also picked up a Fight of the Night for his battle with Sodiq Yusuff as well as a Performance of the Night for his knockout over Billy Quarantillo.
Meanwhile, Garcia has been on a tear with wins in his past five fights in a row while finishing every single opponent by knockout. The Jackson-Winklejohn fighter has been tearing through his competition, which included a first-round finish over Kyle Nelson in a short-notice bout he took in September.
Garcia now looks to add a veteran like Barboza to his resume when the featherweights meet in February.
Anthony Hernandez and Brendan Allen will soon meet again inside the cage.
MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin confirmed with sources with knowledge of the matchup that Hernandez (13-2, 1 NC) is expected to fight Allen (24-6) at a UFC Fight Night event on Feb. 22 with a location still to be confirmed. The news was first reported by MMA Mania.
Hernandez and Allen are currently No. 9 and No. 12 at middleweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings.
The two first fought in January 2018 at an LFA event in Lake Charles, La. Hernandez defeated Allen by unanimous decision to claim a vacant middleweight title.
From there, Hernandez moved on to Dana White’s Contender Series and then the UFC, while Allen eventually won the LFA middleweight title and successfully defended it before making his own UFC jump through Contender Series.
Hernandez has won six straight fights, most recently bludgeoning Michel Pereira in the UFC Vegas 99 main event. He is unbeaten since losing by TKO to Kevin Holland in May 2020.
Allen recently saw his impressive win streak snapped when he lost a unanimous decision to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Paris. Prior to that setback, Allen sneaked into title contention with seven straight victories.