Get caught up with everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours with today’s edition of the Daily MMA review with notes from a new UFC main event, Bellator ratings, other fight announcements and much more.
The News
1. A day after news broke that Junior Dos Santos was forced to withdraw from his TUF Brazil 3 Finale main event tilt with Stipe Miocic, it was announced that Miocic (11-1) will now face Fabio Maldonado (21-6). Maldonado, a usual customer at light heavyweight, will be moving up a division on short notice to take on Miocic at May 31st.
2. The July 16th UFC Fight Night event in Atlantic City continues to take shape as a two bouts were announced for the card.
In the lightweight division, Edson Barboza (13-2) will look to rebound from his UFC on FOX 11 loss to Donald Cerrone against Evan Dunham (14-5) on that Fight Night card. Like Barboza, Dunham was submitted by Cerrone in his most recent outing.
At featherweight, Jim Alers (13-1) is scheduled to welcome former bantamweight and lightweight Lucas Martins (14-1) to the 145 pound division. Alers is coming off of a split decision victory in his UFC debut against Alan Omer, and Martins has won gone 2-1 in the promotion thus far.
3. Yesterday, Philly.com reported that rising flyweight Zach Makovsky (18-4) will square off with Jussier Formiga (16-3) on the August 2nd UFC 176 card. Makovsky is currently riding a four-fight win streak, while Formiga is coming off of a submission victory over Scott Jorgensen.
4. Aaron Phillips (8-0) has stepped up to replace an injured Doo Ho Choi to take on Sam Sicilia (12-4) in a featherweight bout at UFC 173. The fight is scheduled to take place on the Fight Pass portion of the May 24th card.
5. The UFC Fight Night card in San Antonio received it’s thirteenth bout as it was announced that flyweights Ray Borg (6-1) and Ryan Benoit (7-3) will collide on the June 28th date.
6. A welterweight tilt between Ildemar Alcantara (20-6) and Santiago Ponzinibbio (18-2) was announced for the July 5th UFC 175 card.
7. Per Nielsen sources, the preliminary live viewership total for Bellator 118 was 701,000 viewers.