UFC Fight Night 43: Charles Oliveira vs. Hatsu Hioki in the works for June 28 in New Zealand

The "Fight Pass" event runs the same day as UFC Fight Night 44 in San Antonio, Texas, but airs much earlier due to the discrepancy in time zones.

Featherweight standouts Charles Oliveira and Hatsu Hioki are expected to hook 'em up at the latest and greatest Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) "Fight Night" event in New Zealand, which is scheduled to take place on June 28, 2014, inside Auckland's Vector Arena.

Tatame first brought word of the pending match up on Saturday.

Oliveira (17-4, 1 NC) was able to snap a two-fight losing streak by strangling Andy Ogle at UFC Fight Night 38 last February in Brazil. After a hot start to his lightweight career, "Do Bronx" dropped down to 145 pounds with mixed results, but at just 24 years old, has plenty of time to work the kinks out.

That might not hold true for his 30-year-old opponent.

Hioki (27-7-2) was on the chopping block after dropping three consecutive fights under the ZUFFA banner. Fortunately, he was able to remain competitive in all three losses and had a chance to redeem himself against Ivan Menjivar, which he did, by outpointing "The Pride of El Salvador" earlier this year in Macao.

Can he do likewise against the dangerous Brazilian grappler?

UFC Fight Night 43: "Te Huna vs. Marquardt" will be headlined by a middleweight main event pitting local hero James Te Huna against longtime mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran Nate Marquardt. Expect more fight announcements in the coming weeks.

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Wow they're really holding 2 separate events on the same day? What fucking idiots.   

I feel kind of bad for the fighters who won't have their matches ever be seen though.

AudaxSmoke wrote:Wow they're really holding 2 separate events on the same day? What fucking idiots.   

I feel kind of bad for the fighters who won't have their matches ever be seen though.

With time differential, it'll be like running it on consecutive days. No different than X Japan doing a weekend at Tokyo Dome or New Japan tournaments, although those would generate guaranteed profit.

It's completely disregarding casuals and it's on Fight Pass which no one gives a fuck about anyways. This card will end up screaming "we don't care"

However, I do enjoy this particular match. Both match with each other perfectly and are action fighters, so this will be a definite barnburner. Oliveira has looked better as of late but he falls right into Hioki's strength, since Oliveira isn't some an unbeatable submission machine as seen in previous defeat. I do believe Oliveira has shown better striking, or at least from what has been seen, but ultimately, despite the shoddy striking defense, Hioki can hold his own.

Who in their right mind would want UFC two days in a row?

Oh yeah..
  


Agreed that Oliveira VS. Hioki is actually a solid match up but chances are I'll just be seeing the gifs of it.

AudaxSmoke wrote:Who in their right mind would want UFC two days in a row?

Oh yeah..
  


Agreed that Oliveira VS. Hioki is actually a solid match up but chances are I'll just be seeing the gifs of it.

Depending on how the rest looks like, i'll either watch until this fight and bail on it or just catch play by play to know when to tune in.

I'd like to see the UFC at least try to grab Brandon Ropati. No one's picked him up since Legend FC's demise and I believe he's fair game. It's ridiculous that Bellator, DEEP, or One haven't signed him by now.