Ali Bagautinov to Meet Geane Herrera at UFC Fight Night Ottawa on June 18

Former flyweight title challenger Ali Bagautinov will face Geane Herrera at UFC Fight Night Ottawa on June 18.

Promotion officials announced the pairing on Thursday. UFC Fight Night takes place at TD Place Arena and is headlined by a welterweight clash pitting Rory MacDonald against Stephen Thompson. The evening’s main card will air on Fox Sports 1.

After winning his first three promotional appearances, Bagautinov dropped a five-round decision to Demetrious Johnson in a title bid at UFC 174 in June 2014. He was then suspended for a year for testing positive for erythropoietin (EPO) in an out-of-competition drug test. “Puncher” made his Octagon return at UFC 192, where he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Joseph Benavidez on Oct. 3.

Herrera has been victorious in nine of his 10 professional outings thus far, with his only setback coming against Ray Borg in his UFC debut last August. The 25-year-old rebounded in his next appearance, earning a second-round TKO against Joby Sanchez at “The Ultimate Fighter 22” finale.