The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced that WEC vet Bart Palaszewski (pictured) and former TUF competitor Cody McKenzie have verbally agreed to fight at the promotion’s upcoming May 28th in Las Vegas. UFC 130 will be hosted by the MGM Grand Garden Arena and will feature a lightweight bout between champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard in the main event.
Palaszewski (35-14) will make his UFC debut after losing to Kamal Shalorus by split decision at WEC 53 in December. The loss ended the well travelled vet’s five fight winning streak, which included wins over Tyler Combs, Karen Darabedyan, Zachary Micklewright and current contender, Anthony Pettis.
McKenzie (12-1) is coming off his first professional loss, as the "the McKenzietine” expert was choked out by Yves Edwards at the UFC Fight for the Troops 2 card in January. McKenzie won his first official Octagon bout in December, when he tapped out Aaron Wilkinson with a first round, guillotine, at the TUF 12 Finale. The victory was McKenzie’s tenth to come via a guillotine choke.
Some of the other bouts confirmed for UFC 130 include Matt Hamill vs. former light-heavyweight champ “Rampage” Jackson, former heavyweight champion Frank Mir vs. Roy Nelson, Stefan Struve vs. fellow heavyweight Travis Browne and former Sengoku middleweight champ Jorge Santiago vs. Brian Stann.
