Constantinos Philippou Meets Riki Fukuda at UFC 148 in Las Vegas

Riki Fukuda

Middleweights booked for July 7 card at MGM Grand

Two middleweight prospects have been booked for a fight on the UFC’s Independence Day weekend card.

Constantinos Philippou and Riki Fukuda will meet at July 7 at UFC 148 in Las Vegas. UFC officials announced the fight Tuesday, saying verbal agreements are in place between the fighters.

The UFC 148 pay-per-view will take place July 7 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and will be preceded by a UFC Fan Expo, which will take place at Mandalay Bay.

Philippou (10-2, 1 NC, 3-1 UFC) made his UFC debut a year ago on short notice at UFC 128 and dropped a unanimous decision in a 195-pound catch weight fight to Nick Catone. But since then, Philippou has won three straight. He scored a devastating knockout win over Jared Hamman at UFC 140 in December, and earlier this month at UFC on FX: Alves vs. Kampmann, he snapped Court McGee’s eight-fight winning streak by outpointing him in Australia. Philippou trains under former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra and Ray Longo in New York.

Fukuda (18-5, 1-1 UFC) will be looking to build on the strength of his first UFC win, which came last month in his home country of Japan at UFC 144 – a unanimous decision victory over Steve Cantwell. That win came almost a year to the day after his debut with the promotion, a unanimous decision loss to Nick Ring at UFC 127 in Australia. That loss snapped the seven-fight winning streak he had in Deep and Dream before signing with the UFC.

UFC 148 is expected to feature a bantamweight title fight between champion Dominick Cruz and challenger Urijah Faber upon the completion of their coaching stints on the current season of “The Ultimate Fighter LIVE” on FX. Earlier this week, the UFC also announced a middleweight fight between Bisping and Tim Boetsch for the card, as well as a fight between former UFC champion Rich Franklin and former Strikeforce champ Cung Le.