Anthony Njokuani vs. John Makdessi Booked for UFC 145 in Montreal

John Makdessi

Strikers battle at Bell Centre in March

A lightweight fight between a couple of strikers with a combined 15 knockouts in their 23 wins has been added to UFC 145.

Anthony Njokuani and John Makdessi will meet in March in Montreal, which is Makdessi’s home training base with the TriStar Gym team. UFC officials confirmed verbal agreements are in place for the bout, which will happen March 24 at the Bell Centre.

Njokuani (14-6, 1 NC, 1-2 UFC) wastes no time getting back to camp following a close split decision loss to Danny Castillo at UFC 141 two weeks ago in Las Vegas. The former WEC standout made his UFC debut last March, but dropped a unanimous decision to Edson Barboza. He picked up his first UFC victory with a unanimous decision win over Andre Winner at UFC 132. While in the WEC, Njokuani at one point racked up three straight Knockout of the Night bonus awards.

Makdessi (9-1, 2-1 UFC) won his first two UFC fights, a unanimous decision win over Pat Audinwood at UFC 124 in Montreal and one of the best knockouts of 2011, a spinning backfist KO of Kyle Watson at UFC 129 in Toronto that was only upstaged for a $129,000 bonus award by Lyoto Machida’s front-kick KO of Randy Couture. But at UFC 140 last month, Makdessi was submitted by Dennis Hallman for the first loss of his career.

UFC 145, which will take place March 24, will be the promotion’s first trip to Montreal since UFC 124 in December 2010. The UFC skipped Montreal in 2011 and instead visited Toronto twice, plus Vancouver. Montreal is home to the UFC’s top three attendance marks for arena shows, all at the Bell Centre. Including Njokuani-Makdessi, which is likely to be part of the preliminary card, eight fights have been announced for the event, including a heavyweight tilt between Brendan Schaub and Ben Rothwell.