Dream Champ Bibiano Fernandes Joins UFC, Debuts July 21 Against Roland Delorme

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Former two-division Dream champion Bibiano Fernandes will make his long-awaited UFC debut next month in his adopted homeland of Canada.

UFC officials announced Monday that the Brazilian jiu-jitsu wiz will take on Canadian prospect Roland Delorme at UFC 149 in Calgary, Alberta. The bantamweight bout joins a rapidly growing July 21 card which will be topped by a UFC featherweight title match between champ Jose Aldo and challenger Erik Koch.

Fernandes, 32, compiled an impressive 8-1 mark during his time in Japan, capturing Dream’s inaugural featherweight championship by running the table in the company’s 2009 grand prix. After dropping the belt to Hiroyuki Takaya at the end of 2010, “The Flash” shifted to bantamweight and burned through Antonio Banuelos, Takafumi Otsuka and Rodolfo Marques Diniz to claim the vacant Dream bantamweight title.

A submission specialist in his own right, 28-year-old Delorme mounted an impressive comeback against Nick Denis at last month’s UFC on Fox 3, tapping his countryman via rear-naked choke with just one second left in the opening round. The victory moved the Winnipeg native to 2-0 inside the Octagon and 8-1 overall.