Colby Covington is set to make his return to the cage after more than a year of inactivity against former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler at a UFC Fight Night event in Newark, N.J., in August.
The UFC announced the 170-pound matchup Tuesday.
Covington (14-1) hasn’t fought since he defeated Rafael dos Anjos last June to win an interim welterweight title. Covington was later stripped of that belt after he was unable to compete in a unification bout with then-champion Tyron Woodley because he was still recovering from a nasal surgery he underwent.
The 31-year-old has made waves in his weight class in the past couple years with notable wins over Demian Maia and Dong Hyun Kim prior to facing dos Anjos, a former lightweight champion who holds a win over Lawler.
Meanwhile, Lawler (28-13, one no-contest) is coming off a controversial submission loss to Ben Askren at UFC 235 in March. Lawler has lost three of his past four overall and has fallen to No. 10 in the UFC’s official welterweight contender rankings.
In addition to Covington-Lawler, the UFC has also announced the following bouts will take place on the Aug. 3 card which takes place at Prudential Center:
— Volkan Oezdemir vs. Ilir Latifi
— Jim Miller vs. Clay Guida
— Trevin Giles vs. Gerald Meerschaert
— Joaquim Silva vs. Nasrat Haqparast
— Antonina Shevchenko vs. Lucie Pudilova
— Darko Stosic vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu
— Ramazan Emeev vs. Claudio Silva
— Scott Holtzman vs. Dong Hyun Ma
— Jordan Espinosa vs. Matt Schnell
— Lauren Murphy vs. Mara Romero Borella
— Zelim Imadaev vs. Salim Touahri
[relatedlinks]
