Travis Browne vs. Derrick Lewis headlines UFC Halifax

UFC Fight Night 105 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada has a brand new main event. Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole reported that Travis Browne vs. Derrick Lewis, which was originally scheduled for UFC 208 on Saturday, February 11th, has been moved to the Halifax card, which takes place on Sunday, February 19th. UFC Halifax’s original main event, a heavyweight matchup between Junior dos Santos and Stefan Struve, was scrapped after Struve withdrew due to injury, and no suitable replacement opponent was found for dos Santos.

Browne (18-5-1) has won just once in his last four fights. He’s coming off a unanimous decision loss to Fabricio Werdum at UFC 203, in a fight he accepted on short notice. Browne also suffered a TKO loss to Cain Velasquez on the main card of UFC 200. His lone win in the Octagon since 2015 is a controversial third-round TKO of Matt Mitrione, who was repeatedly eye-poked without any point deductions issued by the referee. According to his manager, “Hapa” has been training at several gyms in preparation for his fight with Lewis, but hasn’t officially moved to Black House, contrary to earlier reports.

Lewis (17-4, 1 NC) has won five straight, including a come-from-behind fourth-round TKO of Shamil Abdurakhimov in the main event of UFC Fight Night 102 in Albany, New York. “The Black Beast” has also finished Gabriel Gonzaga, Viktor Pesta, and Damian Grabowski during his winning streak, and also eked out a split decision over Roy Nelson. His fight with the historically granite-chinned Nelson is the only decision victory of his entire MMA career. The current UFC heavyweight rankings have Lewis at #8 and Browne at #9.

The UFC Fight Night: Browne vs. Lewis main card airs live on Fox Sports 1.