E.C. native Torres books April fight with McDonald at UFC 145 in Atlanta

After a tumultuous December, Miguel Torres' 2012 is off to a little better start — and on Friday, he booked his next fight.

Torres will face Michael McDonald, the UFC's youngest fighter, on April 21 in Atlanta. UFC officials confirmed the fight booking, saying that verbal agreements are in place for the bantamweight bout.

In early December, Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White fired Torres after a post on Torres' Twitter account was deemed inappropriate. Three weeks later, the UFC boss brought Torres back, saying he was impressed with the steps Torres had taken to make amends for the tweet, a joke about rape that Torres had taken from a television show.

The former world bantamweight champion now will attempt to put the incident behind him in the form of his training camp for McDonald, which is expected to take place primarily in Boca Raton, Fla., at Imperial Athletics. For his last fight, a decision win over Nick Pace in November, Torres trained at Imperial with the "Blackzilians" before moving to Tristar Gym in Montreal for the final three weeks of preparation. He has been with Tristar and coach Firas Zahabi since back-to-back losses for the first time in his career.

Torres (39-4, 2-1 UFC) is looking to make the climb back to bantamweight title contention, and a win over McDonald (14-1, 3-0 UFC) would put him squarely in the mix again. A controversial decision loss to Demetrious Johnson last May is all that stands between Torres and an unblemished record in the UFC — and had that decision gone the way most fans and MMA media saw it, Torres likely would've had his title shot last fall.

McDonald, who turned 21 just last week, has been the 135-pound division's hottest prospect for a while, and his 56-second Knockout of the Night win at UFC 139 solidified that.

The April 21 show in Atlanta will be UFC 145, a pay-per-view that was moved last week from a March 24 date in Montreal to Georgia. Included on that card will be Keith Wisniewski, of Hobart, who will face Canadian Chris Clements on the preliminary card. Wisniewski's fight was to take place in Montreal before being moved to Atlanta, along with other fights booked for the March show. Torres' fight against McDonald is likely to take place on the main pay-per-view card.