About a month and change away from its Boston card, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been given lemons and made lemonade.
Last week, ex-champ Henry Cejudo announced that he had suffered a shoulder injury and had been forced to withdraw from UFC 292 on Aug. 19. On Friday, the management team of Marlon Vera (20-8-1) – who was to be Cejudo’s opponent – broke the news that Vera would remain on the billing. Now, he will square off against Pedro Munhoz (20-7, 2 NC) in what remains a top-10 tilt at 135 pounds.
Vera will still be looking to bounce back from a tough decision defeat to Cory Sandhagen in March, where one judge authored a 50-45 scorecard for Sandhagen while another believed Vera had prevailed via a 48-47 tally. That loss blunted a four-fight win streak, where the Ecuadorian had punted Dominick Cruz and Frankie Edgar with head kicks while claiming wins by decision over Rob Font and Davey Grant. Those two complete contests with Font and Grant serve as half of the decision wins in the lengthy career of “Chito.”
While he has struggled the last few years, with four losses on the scorecards to Aljamain Sterling, Edgar, Cruz and Jose Aldo, Munhoz has remained a ranked fighter by topping the likes of Jimmie Rivera and Chris Gutierrez. Additionally, “The Young Punisher” faced off against future title challenger Sean O'Malley, and an eye poke from the Montana native resulted in the fight getting ruled a no contest. Beyond the no contest, Munhoz has heard the final bell in every fight dating back to mid-2019.
UFC 292 will take place at Boston’s TD Garden on Aug. 19, and two title fights will sit atop the billing. The main attraction is a bantamweight championship battle between Sterling and O’Malley, while the co-featured fight is a strawweight title bout as Weili Zhang looks to defend her strap against Amanda Lemos. Also expected on the main card is a 135-pound affair pitting Font against Yadong Song, and a welterweight collision between Geoff Neal and Ian Garry.
More must-reads: