More matchmaking! Siyar Bahadurzada faces John Howard at UFC 168

Whoa! The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) continues to stack its end of year card.

Yesterday (Oct. 4, 2013), the UFC announced that Siyar Bahadurzada would be meeting John Howard in a welterweight clash at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV for UFC 168 on Dec. 28, 2013. The card is headlined by Chris Weidman defending his middleweight title against Anderson Silva.

The UFC is trying to make UFC 168 the biggest and deepest card in the promotion's history and the addition of Bahadurzada vs Howard definitely helps at rounding out the card. While it is unlikely that the fight makes it onto the pay-per-view portion of the event, it will be a featured bout on the Fox Sports 1 broad cast.

Bahadurzada returns to action after a disappointing Unanimous Decision loss to Dong Hyun Kim at UFC on Fuel: Silva vs Stann back in March. Prior to the loss, he was on a seven fight winning streak including a knockout victory of Paulo Thiago in his promotional debut.

Howard made his return to the Octagon at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs Sonnen, where he defeated Uriah Hall by Split Decision in what was one of the most disappointing fights of the night. The win brought his promotional record up to a respectable 5-3.

Howard now returns to his natural weight class against one of the toughest fighters in the division. With both having a penchant for trading leather, this fight should be a front runner for Fight of the Night honors.