Antonio Rogerio “Minotoro” Nogueira will join his twin brother, Rodrigo, on the upcoming UFC 140 card. Nogueira will battle “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz on December 10th at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. UFC officials confirmed the bout on Friday night.

Nogueira and Ortiz were originally scheduled to face each other in March, but Ortiz was forced to withdraw after suffering a cut in training. Nogueira won his first two fights in the Octagon after making his long-awaited UFC debut, but has dropped two straight. Ortiz is 1-1 so far this year.

Nogueira (19-5-0) brought a five-fight winning streak into his UFC debut against Luiz “Banha” Cane in late 2009 and stopped Cane in impressive fashion. He went on to eke out a contentious Split Decision over Jason “The Hitman” Brilz, but is now coming off of a pair of decision losses to top contenders Ryan “Darth” Bader and Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis. Nogueira has strong boxing and jiu-jitsu skills and should hold an edge in all areas but wrestling against Ortiz, who likely needs a win in order to stick around.

Ortiz (16-9-1) entered his July bout with Bader on a five-fight winless streak, but gained a tremendous amount of fan support after pulling off a huge upset. After dropping Bader with a short right hook, he submitted the wrestling powerhouse with a guillotine choke in less than two minutes. Ortiz looked to be one big win away from improbable title contention, but suffered a second-round TKO loss in a rematch with fellow ex-champion “Suga” Rashad Evans last month. He now looks for another upset against a veteran opponent with well-rounded skills.

UFC 140 is targeted for December 10th at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Nogueira’s twin brother, Rodrigo, will face Frank Mir in a heavyweight rematch on the card.

(Photo Credit: Sherdog.com)