UFC lightweight champion Ben Henderson will defend his title against Nate Diaz at the UFC on FOX 5 event that will take place on December 8th. UFC President Dana White confirmed the news with USA Today.
That fight will serve as the main event with the co-main event consisting of top light heavyweights Alexander Gustafsson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. The UFC 152 welterweight fight that was scraped between BJ Penn and Rory MacDonald will also take place on the UFC on FOX 5 event.
Ben Henderson successfully defended his title for the first time against the guy he took it from at UFC 144 in Frankie Edgar. The bout was extremely close with Henderson taking the split decision. It was announced prior to that bout that Nate Diaz would face the winner later this year. Shogun Rua headlined the last UFC on FOX event that took place earlier this month, finishing Brandon Vera via TKO in a grueling bout that went into the fourth round.
Gustafsson is coming off a dominant unanimous decision over Thiago Silva at the UFC on FUEL TV event that took place in his home country of Sweden. He has won five consecutive fights while finishing four of those opponents and is thought to match up well with current champion Jon Jones due to his size and striking ability. A win over a former champion like Shogun Rua would certainly put him in the title contention mix.
Penn and MacDonald were supposed to fight as UFC 152, but MacDonald suffered a deep cut over his eye in training which put the bout in jeopardy. MacDonald last fought at UFC 145 and earned a TKO win over Che Mills in the co-main event. Penn has been out of action since suffering a unanimous decision beating at the hands of Nick Diaz at UFC 137. This will mark the fourth event to air on FOX this year.