UFC has announced that the former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes (42-6) and Thiago Alves (14-3) will headline UFC 85 main-event slot vacated by an injured Chuck Liddell.

Dana White:

“Now we will see an explosive matchup between top ten ranked contender Thiago “Pitbull” Alves and two time former UFC World Champion Matt Hughes. Alves is an ATT trained Muay Thai wrecking machine coming off of five straight wins and Hughes is a powerhouse wrestler who was the most dominant welterweight champion in UFC history. These are two of the best athletes in the sport and we are thrilled to bring them to London for the UFC 85 main event.”

Hughes is coming off a UFC 79 loss to Georges St. Pierre for the UFC’s interim welterweight title and Alves most recently defeated Karo Parisyan with a second-round TKO at UFC Fight Night 13 earlier this month which moved him up in 170-pound rankings.

Matt Hughes:

“No matter what happens in this fight, I’ve got Serra next.”

So regardless of what happens, eventually we will (hopefully) see Hughes vs. Serra bad-blood bout.

To check out the most recent UFC 85 fight card click here.