Mike Grundy poised for UFC fight in Texas next month

His next fight has been confirmed, against American Lando Vannata in a featherweight battle at UFC 262 on May 15.

The event takes place at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, which is allowing fans into the venue. It is headlined by a vacant UFC lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler.

Wigan's Grundy makes his highly-anticipated return for the first time since his fight with Movsar Evloev in July 2020, as he looks to build on the impressive stoppage win he earned over Nad Narimani in his UFC debut back in March 2019.

He will welcome Vannata to the featherweight division for the fight, after a UFC run that has stretched back nearly five years, facing the likes of Tony Ferguson, Bobby Green, Yancy Medeirois and Marc Diakiase during that time.

Grundy, 33, has had a frustrating 10 month wait to fight again. He was left "devastated" when he was forced to withdraw from a scheduled fight in January. A member of his team tested positive for Covid-19 before they were due to fly out to take on American Nik Lentz in Abu Dhabi, forcing Grundy to withdraw.

The 33-year-old has predicted "a cracking fight" against Vannata, and has said: "Just get me to that octagon, then I can take care of business."

His withdrawal from the fight in January was the third time he had seen a scheduled UFC fight not take place.

Injury ruled him out in late 2019 and months later, the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out a London event in which he was due to appear.

Grundy's last fight was also on ‘Fight Island’, where he suffered a broken jaw in a points defeat to Russian Movsar Evloev last July in his second UFC fight. Evloev later stepped in to replace Grundy as Lentz's opponent and won.

Grundy is a former international wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games before switching to MMA, winning 11 of 12 fights before his victorious UFC debut in 2019.

His wife Debbie recently gave birth to their third son.