Chris Weidman will make his return to middleweight against Omari Akhmedov at a UFC event on Aug. 8.
Russian outlet TASS was first to report the pairing. The event will be headlined by a heavyweight showdown between Derrick Lewis and Alexey Oleynik and is expected to be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
A former 185-pound champion, Weidman moved up to light heavyweight at UFC on ESPN 6, where he suffered a first-round knockout loss to Dominick Reyes this past October. The 35-year-old New York native has lost five of his last six UFC outings — all via knockout or technical knockout.
Akhmedov is unbeaten in his last six UFC bouts, with a majority draw against Marvin Vettori the only blemish on his ledger during that time. Most recently, “Wolverine” outpointed Ian Heinisch at UFC 245 on Dec. 14.