Luke Rockhold to Face Tim Boetsch at UFC 166

Another pair of heavy hitters will be joining the UFC 166 card as middleweights Luke Rockhold and Tim Boetsch are set to square off at the October event.

UFC officials confirmed the bout with ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto early on Wednesday morning.

Rockhold will look to get back into the win column with this fight, set for Oct. 19 in Houston, following an unsuccessful UFC debut at UFC on FX 8.

The American Kickboxing Academy product suffered a brutal first-round knockout loss to Vitor Belfort when they squared off in Brazil this past May, eating a huge spinning wheel kick that left the last Strikeforce middleweight champ out cold on the canvas.

Prior to the loss, only the second of his MMA career, Rockhold was riding an impressive nine-fight winning streak which included wins over Ronaldo Souza, Keith Jardine and Tim Kennedy.

Boetsch will also be looking to snap his own recent skid. He's lost two in a row, most recently dropping a unanimous decision to Mark Muñoz at UFC 162 earlier this month. 

"The Barbarian" was on a roll before his current losing streak, rattling off four straight wins which included victories over Nick Ring, Yushin Okami and former Bellator middleweight champ Hector Lombard.

Considering that Rockhold and Boetsch have a combined 20 wins via finish, I fully expect this fight to be an action-packed bout on an already stacked fight card.

A few of Rockhold's AKA teammates will be joining him in Houston, including UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez. The 30-year-old will be headlining the event opposite Junior dos Santos. Meanwhile, Daniel Cormier will be taking on Roy Nelson in the night's co-main event.

 

Be sure to like Matt on Facebook and follow @MattchidaMMA.