A trio of UFC veterans will compete in Abu Dhabi the night before the octagon lands in the United Arab Emirates in August.
ADXC announced that former WEC champion Urijah Faber will headline ADXC 5 in a no-gi match with Bibiano Fernandes on Aug. 2. The co-main event has multiple-time UFC featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes taking on former UFC lightweight contender Kevin Lee.
UFC’s Fight Night show in Abu Dhabi goes down the next day with Cory Sandhagen vs. Umar Nurmagomedov in the headlining attraction. The card also features Vicente Luque vs. Nick Diaz, and Tony Ferguson battling Michael Chiesa.
Faber recently tapped Jeff Glover in a combat jiu-jitsu match at his own promotion A1 Combat in May. “The California Kid” won 19 of his 35 MMA wins by way of submission, and defeated Fernandes via dcotor stoppage back in 2006 at King of the Cage.
Fernandes, who was 1-0 in MMA at the time, would go on to win multiple titles at ONE Championship and Dream, scoring nine of his 24 professional victories by way of submission.
Mendes competed in grappling and bare-knuckle boxing since his final UFC appearance in 2018, starting with a draw in a grappling match with Gesias Cavalcante at Quintet in 2019 and a 1-1 run at BKFC, knocking out Joshuah Alvarez before a split decision defeat to Eddie Alvarez.
Lee won nearly half of his MMA wins via submission, tapping the likes of Michael Chiesa and Francisco Trinaldo in the UFC back in 2017, but came up short in his return bout in the UFC in July 2023, losing to Rinat Fakhretdinov.
The gi portion of ADXC 5 will be headlined by Rayron Gracie, the son of late Ryan Gracie, taking on Marcos Carrozzino, while Pedro Ramalho draws Max Lindblad in the co-main event.
