Alves draws Aliev at UFC 224 in Rio de Janeiro
Warlley Alves' next fight will take place far closer to home than his last.
The 27-year-old is set to square off against Sultan Aliev in a welterweight bout at UFC 224 on May 12 at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, as announced during a Tuesday media day for the event, per MMA Fighting's Guilherme Cruz.
Alves - a Brazil native - kicked off his UFC stint by winning "The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 3" as a middleweight and picking up three straight victories at 170 pounds, only to then drop consecutive verdicts to Bryan Barberena and Kamaru Usman. He was last seen rebounding with a unanimous decision over late fill-in Salim Touahri in October at UFC Fight Night 118 in Poland.
Aliev, 33, has split a pair of promotional bouts, falling to Kenny Robertson by first-round KO in January 2015 before getting back in the win column with a split decision over Bojan Velickovic at UFC on FOX 22 in December 2016.
Reigning bantamweight queen Amanda Nunes will defend her crown against the returning Raquel Pennington in the bill's main event.