Brendan O’Reilly is under ZUFFA employment once again with The Ultimate Fighter: Nations combatant securing a place on the UFC Fight Night 48 card opposite TUF: China winner Zhang Lipeng. Although the matchup is yet to be announced by UFC officials, Fight News Australia has confirmed the pairing with sources close to the situation. The matchup was first revealed by Chinese media.
UFC Fight Night 48 is scheduled for Aug. 23 at The Venetian’s Cotai Arena in Macau, China, and will be headlined by a middleweight clash between Michael Bisping and Cung Le. Hector Lombard will also make his return in the co-main event opposite South Korea’s Dong Hyun Kim.
After competing as a welterweight on the Australia vs Canada TUF series, O’Reilly (5-0-1nc) is now set to make his lightweight return for this one. The Brisbane based Gamebred product, who boasted an undefeated record going into the series of five wins and one no contest, was forced from the competition after falling to Canadian Kajan Johnson via first-round rear-naked choke. Back in early march it was revealed that the 26 year-old had signed with the American based Big Fight Management, who also manage O’Reilly’s Gamebred teammate and UFC fighter Ben Wall.
His opponent, Zhang Lipeng (7-7-1dr) from China was crowned the welterweight winner of the China based version of the reality series after edging out Wang Sai by split decision at the show’s finale event back in early March. Leading up the competition, the 24 year-old had suffered two straight defeats in the Real Fight Championship promotion. ‘The Warrior’ is also a one-time Legend FC veteran where back in mid-2010 he was submitted by Brisbane’s Tony Rossini.
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