The UFC recently signed heavyweight Cody East following his win at Legacy FC 51 and he will make his promotional debut against Walt Harris in the featured preliminary bout at UFC 197 on UFC Fight Pass.
The fight booking was announced on the new episode of “Dana White: Looking for a Fight.”
UFC 197 will come from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 23 and will be headlined by an interim UFC light heavyweight title fight as former UFC champion Jon Jones returns to the promotion following a suspension to face Ovince Saint Preux.
East (12-1) is currently on a nine fight winning streak and he defeated Kevin Asplund by TKO at Legacy FC 51. Eleven of his twelve wins have come by finish and eight of those victories have come by TKO/KO. Harris (7-4) will be stepping into competition for the first time since the end of 2014, which was a TKO defeat against Soa Palelei. All of his career victories have come by TKO/KO in the first round.
The current UFC 197: Jones vs. Saint Preux fight card is below.
Main Card: (PPV – 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT)
Jon Jones (21-1) vs. Ovince Saint Preux (19-7)
Demetrious Johnson (23-2-1) vs. Henry Cejudo (10-0)
Anthony Pettis (18-4) vs. Edson Barboza (16-4)
Robert Whittaker (15-4) vs. Rafael Natal (21-6-1)
Yair Rodriguez (6-1) vs. Andre Fili (15-3)
Preliminary Card: (FS1 – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Sergio Pettis (13-2) vs. Chris Kelades (9-2)
Danny Roberts (12-1) vs. Dominique Steele (14-6)
Jessica Aguilar (19-5) vs. Juliana Lima (8-2)
Glaico Franca (13-3) vs. James Vick (8-0)
Preliminary Card: (UFC Fight Pass – 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT)
Cody East (12-1) vs. Walt Harris (7-4)
Marcos Rogerio de Lima (13-3-1) vs. Clint Hester (11-5)
Efrain Escudero (24-10) vs. Kevin Lee (11-2)