Francisco Trinaldo Replaces Gabriel Green Against Dwight Grant at UFC Fight Night 196

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A post shared by Francisco Trinaldo (@massarandubamma)

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It appears that Francisco Trinaldo is staying at welterweight for the foreseeable future.

According to MMA DNA on Thursday, Trinaldo (26-8) will be stepping in for Gabriel Green at UFC Fight Night 196. At welterweight, “Massaranduba” will face Dwight Grant (11-3) on the card staged at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Oct. 23. Trinaldo has since confirmed this pairing on Instagram.

Trinaldo made his 170-pound debut in June when he took on Muslim Salikhov at UFC Fight Night 189. The decision loss to Salikhov ended a three-fight win streak for the Brazilian, who beat Bobby Green and John Makdessi on the scorecards before knocking Jai Herbert out in July 2020. A longtime UFC vet that made his organizational debut in 2012 after the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” the 43-year-old has competed at middleweight and lightweight in his tenure, dropping down from 185 pounds to 155 after his first appearance.

Grant made his professional debut a bit over a year before Trinaldo arrived to the UFC, and made his way to the company after a knockout on the second season of Dana White's Contender Series. A trio of wins over Carlo Pedersoli Jr., Alan Jouban and Stefan Sekulic are interspersed between a knockout defeat to Daniel Rodriguez and a decision loss to Zak Ottow. “The Body Snatcher” has never earned a submission victory, with all of his stoppages coming by way of knockout.

UFC Fight Night 196 goes down in the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Oct. 23. The main event sees a pair of recently defeated middleweight title challengers square off when Paulo Costa takes on Marvin Vettori. A co-headliner has not yet been declared, although featured fights include a featherweight scrap between Alex Caceres and Seung Woo Choi, a middleweight tilt pitting Jun Yong Park against Gregory Rodrigues and a strawweight affair between Jessica-Rose Clark and Joselyne Edwards.