The announcement was made official today at UFC.com.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Demian Maia will drop to welterweight and be welcomed by the super-tough 15-1 Korean judo expert Dong Hyun Kim.UFC 148 is expected to take place on July 7, 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event has had a slew of bouts added over the past few days including matches between Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin, Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le, and Michael Bisping vs. Tim Boetsch.
Maia will test the waters of the UFC’s welterweight division this summer and enters this match on a 1-2 record over his last three Octagon appearances. The Brazilian has fought to a unanimous decision seven straight times, managing a 4-3 record. His last bout was a loss to Chris Weidman last January at the UFC on FOX 2 show, while his last win took place in October at UFC 136 with a decision over Jorge Santiago.
The ‘Stungun’ bounced back from a knockout loss to interim UFC welterweight champ Carlos Condit last summer by earnign a decision against Sean Pearson last December at UFC 141. The loss to Condit at UFC 132 was the first official defeat of Kim’s career having gone 6-1-1 with the UFC. The “No Contest” was initially scored a split decision loss to Karo Parisyan at UFC 94, but a positive test for banned painkillers by Parisyan saw the outcome changed to a “NC”.
