Jack Hermansson vs. Sean Strickland headlines UFC’s Feb. 5 event

A key middleweight matchup is on tap for the first part of the UFC’s 2022 calendar year.

Jack Hermansson (22-6 MMA, 9-4 UFC) is set to take on the streaking Sean Strickland (24-3 MMA, 11-3) in a five-round main event Feb. 5. MMA Junkie confirmed the matchup with people with knowledge of the booking following an initial report from UFC broadcast partner ESPN.

The Feb. 5 event does not yet have an announced venue, location or broadcast plan, but is likely to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas with a broadcast on a combination of ESPN and ESPN+.

Hermansson got back on track in May with a unanimous decision win over Edmen Shahbazyan. Prior to that, he had an up-and-down run with big wins over Ronaldo Souza and Kelvin Gastelum, but losses to Jared Cannonier and Marvin Vettori.

Strickland will bring a five-fight winning streak into the matchup. After two losses in three fights, including one to current welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, he beat Nordine Taleb in what for now was his last welterweight fight. He then moved to middleweight and beat Jack Marshman, Brendan Allen (at a 195-pound catchweight), Krzysztof Jotko and, most recently, Uriah Hall in July.

Hermansson currently is No. 6 in the UFC’s official middleweight rankings, and Strickland is right behind him at No. 7.

With the addition, the UFC’s Feb. 5 lineup now includes:

• Jack Hermansson vs. Sean Strickland

• Marc-Andre Barriault vs. Chidi Njokuani

• Sam Alvey vs. Ian Heinisch

• Phil Rowe vs. Jason Witt

• Jailton Almeida vs. Danilo Marques

• John Castaneda vs. Miles Johns

• Denys Bondar vs. Malcolm Gordon

• Hakeem Dawodu vs. Mike Trizano

• Bryan Battle vs. Tresean Gore

• Nick Maximov vs. Punahele Soriano