A light heavyweight encounter between Ricardo Arona and Marvin Eastman will cap off a night of ten bouts at Saturday's Bitetti Combat 4 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
FanHouse confirmed Tuesday with Bitetti Combat the complete card and with the exception of the recent exit of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, the lineup has remained intact.
For Bitetti Combat 4, UFC veteran Amaury Bitetti is bringing live to Brazilian network television the likes of Arona, Paulo Filho, Pedro Rizzo and Murilo "Ninja" Rua, who have made a name for themselves in the US and Japan, but have rarely or in some cases never competed on home soil.
Arona, who four years ago was considered one of the best 205ers in the world, will be returning to action for the first time since April 2007 and will be doing so for the first time in his career inside a cage. Arona holds wins over Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Alistair Overeem and Kazushi Sakuraba, but he may be most recognizable for being powerbombed unconscious by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004.
The major change to the card was the removal of Nogueira, who had to bow out of a fight against Alex Stiebling due to a foot injury that will not heal in time for the fight. Bitetti Combat picked another brother of a current UFC title contender, "Ninja" Rua, to fill in for Nogueira.
Fight Card:
- Ricardo Arona vs. Marvin Eastman
- Paulo Filho vs. Alex Schoenauer
- Pedro Rizzo vs. Jeff Monson
- Murilo "Ninja" Rua vs. Alex Stiebling
- Luciano Azevedo vs. Milton Vieira
- Fabio Maldonado vs. Vitor Miranda
- Luciano Izzy vs. Alexandre Pimentel
- Leonardo Lucio Nascimento vs. Glover Teixeira
- Cassiano Tytschyo vs. Leandro Silva
- Henrique Nogueira vs. Eduardo Pamplona
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