With yesterday’s news of Tonya Evinger stepping in to replace Megan Anderson against Cris Cyborg at UFC 214, the July 29 event may have just gained another new fight.
MMA Fighting is reporting that Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone is suffering from an undisclosed injury so his UFC 213 fight with Robbie Lawler is “almost certain” to be rescheduled for UFC 214. The loss of Cerrone-Lawler shouldn’t hurt UFC 213 much as the main card also features fights between Anthony Pettis vs. Jim Miller and Fabricio Werdum vs. Alistair Overeem underneath the two championship fights headlining the card.
UFC 214 is turning into a deep card as well with Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones headlining along with the new Cyborg-Evinger fight and now potentially Cerrone-Lawler.
Cerrone and Lawler have been linked to fighting each other for nearly a year as the fight was first announced for UFC 205 last November before Lawler opted to take more time off after losing his welterweight championship to Tyron Woodley at UFC 201 last July. Cerrone has continued to fight in the interim, picking up a knockout win over Matt Brown at UFC 206 in December and then suffering a TKO loss to Jorge Masvidal a month later.
UFC, Cerrone, nor Lawler have commented publicly on the news as of Wednesday morning.
Hiscoe’s Analysis: This seems to be one of those cursed fights that seemed too good to be true when it was first announced but never seems to be able to happen. If the fight is being moved to UFC 214, that’s actually better overall as UFC 214 needs the support in case Cormier-Jones, another cursed fight, falls through. Either way, July is shaping up to be a strong month of shows for UFC if everything goes through as planned.
WEDNESDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…
-Tonya Evinger told UFC.com that she has been willing to move weight classes to get a shot in UFC for some time. “This is something I’ve thought about doing – going up to 145 pounds – just to get more competition,” Evinger said. “I even said I’d go down to 125, but the opportunity was at 145 and I’m definitely willing to beat up on some ‘45ers.”
-Manny Pacquiao told Yahoo Sports that he has little interest in Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor and that he doesn’t like McGregor’s chances in the fight. “The real fight and the best fight is Golovkin vs. Canelo,” Pacquiao said. “The best vs. the best. That’s the fight I will be watching,” adding “McGregor has no chance in this fight. In fact, it could be very boring… There is no way he will be able to land a meaningful punch on Floyd.”
-Erick Silva’s appeal to the Brazilian commission (CABMMA) to overturn his TKO loss to Yancy Medeiros at UFC 212 earlier this month has been denied. Silva felt the fight was stopped early but a CABMMA rep in a statement to MMA Fighting said they “will not change a decision rendered at the end of any contest or exhibition unless (i) it determines that there was a collusion affecting the relevant result, (ii) the compilation of the scorecards of the judges discloses an error which shows that the decision was given to the wrong athlete, or (iii) as the result of an error interpreting a provision of our rules and regulations, the referee has rendered an incorrect decision.”
NOW CHECK OUT YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: TUESDAY NEWS DIGEST 6/27: UFC’s schedule leaked, UFC 215 removed from schedule week before McGregor-Mayweather (w/Hiscoe’s Analysis)
(MMATorch’s Daily News Digest features the top story of the day with added analysis, plus smaller tidbits in the News Notes section. Mike Hiscoe, who writes the News Digest Sundays through Thursdays, has a background in film criticism and previously wrote for the DVD Town and Movie Metropolis websites. His passion for Mixed Martial Arts goes back to 2005, but it was in the promotion for UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie that he really got hooked.”This is my house, I build it,” is still among the all-time great UFC promos. You can follow Mike on social media under the tag @mikehiscoe. He now provides his experienced writing and perspective on live MMA events for MMATorch.)
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