Get caught up with everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours with today’s edition of the Weekend MMA review with notes from Jose Aldo’s next title defense, results from the regional MMA scene and much more.
The News
1. UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo’s (24-1) next championship defense will be a rematch versus Chad Mendes (16-1) in the main event of UFC 176 in Los Angeles. The date for the event is August 2nd. Aldo will look to defend his UFC strap for the seventh time.
2. Fresh off losing against Jose Aldo, Ricardo Lamas (13-3) is scheduled to take on Hacran Dias (21-2-1) at UFC Fight Night 44 event in San Antonio.
3. Rising welterweights will collide on the July 16th UFC Fight Night 45 card, John Howard (22-9) is slated to take on Rick Story (16-8). Howard had a four-fight winning streak snapped by a loss to Ryan LaFlare in his last fight, while Story was unsuccessful in his last outing against Kelvin Gastelum.
4. The third title fight on the WSOF 10 card was set over the weekend, and it features the promotion’s female strawweight champion Jessica Aguilar (17-4) and Emi Fujino (13-7). Aguilar, one of the best fighters at the weight class, won the title at WSOF 8 by submitting Alida Gray, and Fujino has amassed a 5-3 record in her last eight outings.
Regional MMA Results
1. With UFC taking the day off, Cage Warriors 68 was the marquee MMA event on Saturday. Using a thundering right and some ground strikes to seal the deal, Danny Roberts (11-1) improved his Cage Warriors record to 6-0 when he finished Jim Wallhead (25-9) with only seconds remaining in the first round.
36-year-old Marcelo Costa (9-2-1) displayed his grappling against Ronnie Mann (23-7-1) in the night’s co-main event, submitting Mann with a rear-naked choke after a scramble on the ground.
The other main card results saw Brazilian welterweight Mauro Chimento (16-10) finish Matt Inman (13-6) with a body shot in the first, English middleweights Matt Hallam (5-2) and Che Mills (16-7, 2 NC) scored second round victories over Steven Dinsdale (6-2) and Leeroy Barnes (12-14, 1 NC) with Hallam scoring a knockout victory and Mills earning his win with a submission, and English featherweight Dean Garnett (6-0) eliciting a tap from John Cullen (17-9-2) with a heel hook in the initial period.
2. Super Challenge 10 featured a pair of former UFC fighters getting their hands raised as Efrain Escudero (22-8) finished Juha-Pekka Vainikainen (22-9-1) with strikes late in the third and David Bielkheden (19-12) earned a unanimous decision over Besam Yousef (6-4).