UFC Fight Night 61 Co Main Event announced for the fight card that takes place in the UFC’s first foray back into Brazil for 2015.

UFC Fight Night 61 Co Main Event has two veracious lightweight fighters looking to stake their claim for a shot at the top ten.

Michael Johnson and Edson Barboza have done their share of fighting some of the best and brightest up and comers and losing to some of the best fighters at 155 pounds. Edson Barboza is currently ranked sixth in the UFC Lightweight division but could crack the top ten with a win over Johnson.

With over ten fights, Barboza has proven to be quite the talent for the UFC. His only losses come to Jaime Varner and that could be chalked up to the change of opponent and Donald Cerrone where he almost finished Cerrone a couple times before losing. He is currently riding a two fight win streak the last of which where he became the first person to take out Bobby Green in the UFC.

Michael Johnson is the other opponent in the UFC Fight Night 61 Co Main Event but it will also be the first fight in nearly a year. Following two straight losses at the end of 2012-2013, Johnson turned it around with a with three straight wins over veteran UFC fightersJoe Lauzon, Gleison Tibau and Melvin Guillard. Now he has a chance to reassert himself and move up from his 11th spot in the rankings.

UFC Fight Night 61 Co Main Event may have been announced but the main event has been known for sometime. The main event pits two former title challengers against each other when Glover Teixeira looks to face off against Rashad Evans who returns from a long layoff. This is just another great card for the big start to 2015 for the UFC.