UFC Fight News, Including VanZant, Markos, Rivera, Stephens And Kattar

The UFC officially kicked off the new decade this past decade at UFC 246. After a rare five week break of action, the promotion returned with a bang, with Conor McGregor stopping ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone after just forty seconds of the main event.

UFC 246 marked the first of ten cards in the first quarter of 2020, with another nine to come in the upcoming ten weeks. With so many events announced, it’s been a busy few weeks of fight announcements. Just in the last twenty four hours, there has been lots of fight news.

Less than a month after Paige VanZant was confirmed to return against Amanda Ribas at UFC Brasilia, she has been forced to withdraw injured. Having not fought in a year, PVZ will have to wait even longer before fighting out the last fight on her UFC contract.

Ribas already has a replacement for the March 14th card. She will face Randa Markos, who is coming off a split decision win over Ashley Yoder at UFC Singapore last October.

While there has been lots of fight announcements this year already, there have also been lots of withdrawals through injuries. As well as VanZant, Jimmie Rivera has also been forced out of his upcoming fight. The top bantamweight contender was scheduled to meet Marlon Vera at UFC 247. This latest withdrawal follow the news earlier this week that Dhiego Lima has also pulled out of his welterweight clash with Alex Morono on the card.

After the withdrawals, the UFC 247 card now looks like this:

Main Card:

UFC Light Heavyweight Championship: Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes

UFC Flyweight Championship: Valentina Shevchenko vs. Katlyn Chookagian

Juan Adams vs. Justin Tafa

Mirsad Bektic vs. Dan Ige

Ilir Latifi vs. Derrick Lewis

Prelims:

Marlon Vera vs. TBA

Antonio Arroyo vs. Trevin Giles

Alex Morono vs. TBA

Andrea Lee vs. Lauren Murphy

Early Prelims:

Mario Bautista vs. Miles Johns

Journey Newson vs. Domingo Pilarte

Andre Ewell vs. Jonathan Martinez


Heading to Europe, Brazil’s Geraldo de Freitas will take on Wales’ Jack Shore, in an exciting bantamweight clash at UFC London. The Brazilian will be looking to get back to winning ways, having lost a split decision to Chris Gutierrez at UFC Uruguay. While Shore is coming off a winning debut in the UFC, having submitted Nohelin Hernandez at UFC Copenhagen.

Meanwhile, there are three exciting matchups in the works for UFC 249. Jeremy Stephens and Calvin Kattar have verbally agreed to meet in Brooklyn, on April 18th. The two featherweights were originally booked in for UFC 248 but the fight was later cancelled. It now looks like they will still meet inside the Octagon, but just a month later.

An exciting heavyweight clash is also set to go down at UFC 249. MMA Junkie has reported that the UFC is working on Ciryl Gane vs Shamil Abdurakhimov. Frances’s Gane is coming off another impressive performance against Tanner Boser at UFC Busan last month. The win extended his unbeaten record to 6-0, with his last three coming inside the Octagon. Abdurakhimov holds a record of 20-5 and is coming off a loss to Curtis Blaydes at UFC 242.

MMA Junkie has also reported that Sijara Eubanks and Sarah Moras are set to face off at UFC 249, in a bantamweight contest. Eubanks will be looking to end a two fight losing streak, having lost to Aspen Ladd and Bethe Correia in 2019. Moras last fought at UFC 242, where she scored a third round TKO win over Liana Jojua.

And lastly, as we reported yesterday on our Facebook page, the UFC has now officially confirmed that 36 year old Derek Brunson will take on 22 year old Edmen Shahbazyan at UFC 248, in what will be an exciting top ten middleweight clash.


See also:


Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Leave comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.