Junior dos Santos vs Stipe Miocic Heavyweight fight booked as UFC 173 co-main event

With Alistair Overeem out of the question (again), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) found another good fight for former Heavyweight champion, Junior dos Santos.

"Cigano" will collide with Stipe Miocic at UFC 173, which is scheduled to take place at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 24, 2014. Las Vegas Review-Journal, which initially reported the match up, reveals that it will serve as the pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event of the evening.

Dos Santos has competed on the two most recent Memorial Day card for the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion, stopping Frank Mir at UFC 146 in 2012 and doing the same to Mark Hunt at UFC 160 one year later. Before and after the win over Hunt, however, dos Santos suffered crushing losses to current Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.

Most recently, Velasquez beat dos Santos senseless en route to a brutal fifth-round technical knockout at UFC 166 in Oct. 2013.

Miocic, meanwhile, is in the midst of a two-fight win streak that includes decision wins over division veterans Roy Nelson and Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 161 and UFC on FOX 10, respectively. In fact, in six Octagon appearances, the Croatian-American has just one loss, a technical knockout courtesy of Stefan Struve back in Sept. 2012, his only professional MMA loss.

Despite his recent loss to Velasquez, dos Santos is still regarded as the No. 1 Heavyweight contender, while Miocic sits at No. 7 in the latest UFC rankings (read complete list here).

UFC 173 will be headlined by a middleweight title fight that features undefeated champion Chris Weidman, who will put his 185-pound title on the line against new division No. 1 contender Lyoto Machida. Elsewhere on the card, Chris Holdsworth tangles with Kyung Ho Kang, while Doo Ho Choi throws hands opposite Sam Sicilia.

To check out the latest UFC 173: "Weidman vs. Machida" fight card and rumors click here.