Following a successful return to the Octagon at UFC Fight Night 26 in August, John Howard will return to the welterweight division.

“Doomsday” looks to make it four victories when he takes on fellow knockout specialist Siyar Bahadurzada at UFC 168, the UFC’s annual end of year pay-per-view event set for December 28. The UFC News Twitter account announced the fight on Friday.

Howard defeated The Ultimate Fighter season 17 runner-up Uriah Hall in front of his Boston, Massachusetts home crowd late this summer, making him the winner of seven of his last eight bouts since being cut from the UFC in June 2011.

All of those bouts were contested at185 pounds, though Howard has elected to cut the extra 15 pounds and get back down to welterweight, the division he competed in during his last tenure with the UFC.

He faces a game opponent in Bahadurzada, who was riding a solid seven-fight win streak before getting soundly outgrappled and controlled by Dong Hyun Kim at UFC on FUEL 8 in March.

Howard, a textbook pocket striker, is unlikely to take this fight to the ground so the fans could have an entertaining 170-pound slugfest on their hands.

Bahadurzada, a force to be reckoned with on the regional scene, made his UFC debut at UFC on FUEL 3 in April of last year, scoring a flash knockout over respected Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Paulo Thiago.

When two iron-fisted strikers meet in the center of the cage, whose chin will give out first in this potentially exciting welterweight contest?