A light heavyweight bout between former PRIDE ace Antonio Rogerio “Minotoro” Nogueira and ex-UFC champ Forrest Griffin is now planned for UFC 114 on May 29th. MMAjunkie.com first reported on the date change for the fight, which was originally targeted for UFC 113 on May 8th in Montreal.

Nogueira made a big impact in his UFC debut when he stopped rising contender Luiz “Banha” Cane in less than two minutes at UFC 106, but has been sidelined due to injury. Griffin rebounded from a pair of knockout losses when he edged old rival Tito Ortiz on the same UFC 106 card.

Nogueira (18-3-0) made his name in Pride Fighting Championships until the promotion’s closure in 2007. He picked up impressive victories over Guy Mezger, Kazuhiro Nakamura (twice), Kazushi Sakuraba, Dan Henderson and Alistair Overeem (twice) while competing for PRIDE and later put together a five-fight winning streak before making his long-awaited UFC debut. He did not disappoint, as he picked Cane apart before stopping him with punches in the first round. A victory over the former champion Griffin would place Nogueira firmly in line for a future title shot.

Griffin (17-6-0) won the first season of The Ultimate Fighter in 2005 and has since become one of the top stars in the UFC. However, for every big win that the Georgian has picked up, there has been a crushing defeat soon after. Successive wins over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson netted Griffin the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, but he was then knocked out by Rashad Evans and Anderson Silva. Griffin will look to pick up his second win in a row when he faces Nogueira, who aims to follow his twin brother’s success inside the Octagon.

UFC 114 takes place on May 29th at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

(Photo Credit: Sherdog.com)