Ilir Latifi remains at heavyweight, faces Tanner Boser in June

Ilir Latifi is set to return to the Octagon and will remain a heavyweight when he does so.

Latifi moved up to heavyweight back at UFC 247 and lost a very close split decision to Derrick Lewis. Now, according to MMAEmpire, the Swede will face Canadian prospect, Tanner Boser at a UFC fight night card on June 5.

Ilir Latifi is currently on a three-fight losing streak. Before the split decision loss to Lewis, he suffered a TKO loss to Volkan Oezdemir and a decision loss to Corey Anderson. His last win came back in 2018 when he submitted Ovince Saint Preux in the first round. Inside the Octagon, the Swede is 7-6 and has fought the likes of Jan Blachowicz, Gegard Mousasi, and Ryan Bader, where he lost all three fights.

Tanner Boser, meanwhile, is coming off a close decision loss to Andrei Arlovski in November. Before that, he picked up back-to-back knockout wins over Raphael Pessoa and Philipe Lins. In the UFC, he also has a decision win over Daniel Spitz and a decision loss to Ciryl Gane. The Canadian is 19-7-1 as a pro and before signing with the Las Vegas-based promotion, he was fighting in Russia in ACB and M-1 Challenge. He’s also the former Unified heavyweight champion.

This is a very interesting fight as this could very well be do-or-die for Latifi’s career. If he loses four in a row, it is uncertain if the UFC would keep him, but if he beats a prospect like Boser, he would likely fight a top-15 guy. For the Canadian, if he can get past Latifi, it is likely he would face someone in the top-15 or just outside.

With the addition of Ilir Latifi vs Tanner Boser, the June 5 card is now as follows: