Former WEC bantamweight title Contender Manny Tapia will battle the very first WEC bantamweight champion, Eddie Wineland, on the WEC 43 fight card. News of the bout comes via The Northwest Times of Indiana.

The longtime King Of The Cage veteran, Tapia, has lost his past two fights. He dropped his first career loss against current WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres and followed that by losing to Akitoshi Tamura at WEC 40 in April. Tapia was unbeaten in the first eleven fights in his career, which includes wins in his first two bouts with the WEC against Brandon Foxworth and Antonio Banuelos.

Eddie Wineland was originally slated to face Frank Gomez at WEC 41 last month, however, he was forced off the event due to an elbow injury.

Wineland is 2-2 in his last four fights, with a loss in his most recent fight against Rani Yahya at WEC 40. Prior to the loss, Wineland put together two straights wins outside the WEC against Jason Tabor and Wade Choate. He was the original WEC bantamweight champion after he defeated Antonio Banuelos to win the WEC's first-ever 135-pound title at WEC 20 back in May of 2006. Twelve of Wineland's fourteen career wins have come by stoppages.

WEC 43 takes place on September 2 at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio. The event will be headlined by a WEC interim lightweight title bout between Donald Cerrone and Benson Henderson.