Former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos will square off with Curtis Blaydes in the main event of UFC Raleigh, sources told ESPN's Brett Okamoto.
Dos Santos (21-6) was scheduled to face Alexander Volkov at UFC Moscow before a bacterial infection in his leg forced him off the card. The 35-year-old last fought in June when he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Francis Ngannou at UFC Minneapolis, which snapped his three-fight win streak.
Blaydes (12-2) heads into the bout coming off back-to-back wins over Justin Willis and Shamil Abdurakhimov. His last defeat came in November 2018 when he was knocked out in 46 seconds by Ngannou at UFC Beijing. Blaydes is 7-2 with one no-contest in his UFC career.
UFC Raleigh will take place at PNC Arena on Jan. 25. No other matchups have been announced for the event.