Gonzaga-Dos Santos & Tibau-Trinaldo Set
Posted on 19 Aug 2012
by MMAScoops.com Staff

Two rumored fights are now official for UFC 153 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this October.

These include a heavyweight fight between Gabriel Gonzaga (13-6 MMA, 8-5 UFC) and Geronimo Dos Santos (31-14 MMA, 0-0 UFC), as well as a lightweight bout between Francisco "Massaranduba" Trinaldo (11-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and Gleison Tibau (25-8 MMA, 10-6 UFC). Both are set for the preliminary card of the event and were recently added by UFC officials. The event takes place on October 13 at the HSBC Arena. The main card will air on PPV with the preliminary fights expect to air on FX and stream on Facebook. Jose Aldo looks to defend his featherweight title against Erik Koch in the main event.

Gonzaga was 3-5 in his first run with the UFC, including a well-remembered head-kick knockout of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. He earned a heavyweight title shot against Randy Couture but lost via TKO at UFC 74. In January, he returned at UFC 142 where he defeated Ednaldo Oliveira with a first-round submission. Dos Santos, meanwhile, is a former sparring partner of Lyoto Machida and has won 23 of his 31 wins via KO. In 2010, he fought Josh Barnett for Impact FC, but lost by first-round submission. He has also fought Junior dos Santos, but lost via first-round TKO cut stoppage.

Trinaldo fought on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil as a middleweight. He made his debut at UFC 147 in June and defeated Delson Heleno by knockout for his fifth straight win. He has dropped two divisions to fight at his natural weight class of lightweight. Tibau was on a 5-1 run with three straight wins before a loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 148 in July. He has defeated the likes of Josh Neer, Jeremy Stephens, Caol Uno and Terry Etim.

Here's the latest card:

Champ Jose Aldo vs. Erik Koch (for featherweight title)
Alan Belcher vs. Vitor Belfort
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Glover Teixeira
Jon Fitch vs. Erick Silva
Demian Maia vs. Rick Story
Rony "Jason" Mariano Bezerra vs. Sam Sicilia
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Geronimo Dos Santos
Gleison Tibau vs. Francisco Trinaldo
Diego Brandao vs. Joey Gambino
Renee Forte vs. Sergio Moraes
Chris Camozzi vs. Luiz Cane
Reza Madadi vs. Cristiano Marcello