ABERTILLERY’S Jack Marshman will bid for a second successive victory in the UFC when he takes on Brazil’s Thiago Santos in Canada in the new year.

The middleweight contest is set for UFC Fight Night 105 at Nova Scotia’s Scotiabank Centre on February 19.

Marshman, 26, is still on a high after a stunning performance on his UFC debut in Belfast last month, when he secured a second-round stoppage of Sweden’s Magnus Cedenblad.

The Swede went into that fight as the favourite but Marshman, the first Welshman to be signed by the American mixed martial arts organisation, delivered the goods.

He won a $50,000 prize for performance of the night, as Swansea’s Brett Johns also triumphed in his maiden UFC appearance.

Santos goes into the bout on the back of consecutive defeats, although before that he had enjoyed a run of four straight wins.

Speaking after his defeat of Cedenblad, Marshman said he was targeting a show in London for his next outing, while he also hopes the UFC will come to Wales one day.

At the time, he said: “In the longer term I’d love to see a UFC event in Wales.

“We’re the only country in Britain not to have hosted one and now Brett and I are on the scene it can’t be far off.

“Hopefully we’ve inspired a lot of people. There are a lot of great MMA fighters in Wales and we’ve opened the door and shown them that there are opportunities there.

“It would be great if we could get a big event in Wales because the amount of support for the sport here is massive.”