UFC 215 - Nunes vs. Shevchenko 2 --- UFC Fight Night 117 - Saint Preux vs. Okami
UFC Fight Night 116: Rockhold vs. Branch is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will be held on September 16, 2017 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Fight card
Main Card (Fox Sports 1)
Middleweight Luke Rockhold vs. David Branch
Welterweight Mike Perry vs. Thiago Alves
Middleweight Hector Lombard vs. Anthony Smith
Lightweight Gregor Gillespie vs. Jason Gonzalez
Welterweight Kamaru Usman vs. Sérgio Moraes
Heavyweight Justin Ledet vs. Dmitriy Sosnovskiy
Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1)
Lightweight Tony Martin vs. Olivier Aubin-Mercier
Heavyweight Anthony Hamilton vs. Daniel Spitz
Middleweight Krzysztof Jotko vs. Uriah Hall
Bantamweight Luke Sanders vs. Felipe Arantes
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)
Lightweight Jason Saggo vs. Gilbert Burns
Background
This event will be the third that the UFC has hosted in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A middleweight bout between former Strikeforce and UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold and former WSOF Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Champion David Branch is expected to headline this event.
A heavyweight bout between Justin Ledet and Dmitriy Sosnovskiy was expected to take place at UFC Fight Night: Bermudez vs. Korean Zombie. However, Ledet pulled out of the fight on January 26 alleging an undisclosed injury, and promotion officials elected to remove Sosnovskiy from the card. In turn, the UFC confirmed that Ledet was suspended for four months after testing positive for a banned substance. The fight is expected to take place at this event.
An August 19 event (originally expected to be UFC 215) had two announced bouts, including a welterweight bout between Mike Perry and former UFC Welterweight Championship challenger Thiago Alves, as well as a middleweight bout between former Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard and Anthony Smith. After the event was canceled, both fights are now expected to take place at this event.