The UFC has again paired heavyweights Tanner Boser with Rodrigo Nascimento. Multiple people familiar with the matter told MMA Fighting the matchup was in place for the September 17 UFC show.
Contracts are still being negotiated, but the fighters have spoken to each other about their willingness to fight. MMA Fighting learned this. UFC has yet to announce the location of their event.
Boser and Nascimento were originally set to meet back in April but “Ze Colmeia” withdrew due to an injury. Alexandr Romanov stepped in as a replacement before “The Bulldozer” pulled out days before the event with an injury.
Boser (20-8-1) last fought 12 months ago, knocking out Ovince St. Preux to snap a two-fight losing skid to Andrei Arlovski and Ilir Latifi. Boser won two of his four UFC victories against Brazilian competitors, with TKOs over Raphael Pessoa and Philipe Lins.
Nascimento (8-1, 1 no-contest) finished Alan Baudot in his most recent fight in July 2021 but had the victory overturned to a no contest after testing positive for ritalinic acid, a metabolite of the banned stimulant methylphenidate. Nascimento told Combate earlier this year he was given a retroactive therapeutic use exemption (TUE) and is still hoping to get his win back.
Mike Heck contributed to this report.
