The UFC on Friday announced the addition of a middleweight bout between Gerald Harris and newcomer Dave Branch to the near complete non-televised preliminary portion of its UFC 116 event on July 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Harris (15-2), who was a cast member on the seventh season of the Ultimate Fighter, is currently on an impressive nine-fight winning streak, which includes wins in his first two UFC bouts over John Salter and most recently Mario Miranda at UFC Fight Night 21 in March. He has not suffered a loss since being defeated by Benji Radach at an IFL event in August 2007.

The C3 Fights, Freestyle Cage Fighting and Shark Fights veteran has finished 13 of his 15 career wins and holds other notable victories during his three-year career over the likes of Robert McDaniel, Curtis Stout and Travis Doerge.

Branch, who signed with the UFC last month, recently scored a standing rear-naked-choke submission win over Derrick Mehman at Bellator 15 in April. The win moved him to 2-0 with the Bellator Fighting Championships, notching his previous win with the promotion over Dennis Olson at Bellator 11.

The Brooklyn, N.Y. native has put together a perfect 6-0 MMA record since making his pro debut in September 2007, scoring stoppage wins in all of his six victories including 3 by TKO. Branch, who is a Renzo Gracie black belt, holds other notable career wins over John Troyer and Alex Aquino.

UFC 116 is headlined by a UFC heavyweight title unification bout between UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and interim heavyweight champ Shane Carwin. Also, middleweights Yoshihiro Akiyama and Wanderlei Silva will face each other in the night's co-main event.

Make sure to check back with us the day of the event for free, live, round-by-round coverage of UFC 116 right here at FiveKnuckles.com! Join expert analyst Mike Williams as he takes you through the entire fight card blow-by-blow and then keep it right here for all the post-fight news and notes you can handle!