Raphael Assuncao-Issei Tamura Booked for UFC on Fuel TV 4 in July

Raphael Assuncao (Josh Hedges/UFC)

New bantamweights set to meet on July 11 in San Jose

A pair of recent featherweights are dropping down a notch to fight this July.

Raphael Assuncao will fight for the second time at bantamweight when he takes on Issei Tamura, who is making the drop, as well. The two will meet at UFC on Fuel TV 4. UFC officials recently announced the fight booking.

UFC on Fuel TV 4 is scheduled for July 11 and will take place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. – though the venue has not officially been announced by the UFC. UFC on Fuel TV 4 is expected to be headlined by a middleweight contenders bout between Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman. James Te Huna and Brandon Vera also are expected to fight on the card.

Assuncao (16-4, 1-1 UFC) is coming off a unanimous decision win over Johnny Eduardo at UFC 134 last August in Brazil. That fight was Assuncao’s debut in the bantamweight division after fighting at featherweight in the WEC and for his first bout in the UFC, which was a first-round knockout loss to current top featherweight contender Erik Koch at UFC 128. Assuncao, a Brazilian who fights out of Atlanta, has wins over Joe Lauzon and Jorge Masvidal on his resume.

Tamura (7-2, 1-0 UFC) had a successful UFC debut in front of his home countrymen in February when he knocked out Tiequan Zhang early in the second round at UFC 144 in Japan. That fight took place at featherweight, but despite the good start at 145 pounds in the UFC, Tamura, who trains with Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto in Japan, will drop to 135 to see how he fares there. The fight against Assuncao will be Tamura’s first outside his native Japan.