Casey Kenney gets last minute call to UFC, just days after second LFA title win
What a month March has been for Casey Kenney (11-1-1). The 28-year-old professional mixed martial artist made history this past Friday night, becoming the first ever two-division champion in Legacy Fighting Alliance history. Kenney claimed the LFA interim bantamweight title at LFA 62 with a 98-second knockout over Vincent Cachero.
Kenney entered the contest, already holding the promotion’s interim flyweight title, and now gets the biggest test of his career.
Just days after the victory, Kenney will step into the UFC octagon as a last minute replacement against the highly durable Ray Borg at UFC on ESPN 2 in Philadelphia on Saturday.
It’s the second opponent change for Borg. The number three ranked flyweight was originally slated to face Pingyuan Liu but Liu was removed from the fight card on March 13 for undisclosed reasons and replaced by Kyler Phillips. Phillips was then pulled from the bout and replaced by Casey Kenney.
Borg (11-3) last competed in October 2017 losing to then UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson. He was scheduled to face Brandon Moreno at UFC 223 but withdrew from the fight after being injured by flying glass after Conor McGregor smashed in the window of a bus carrying Borg and other fighters. The fight was rescheduled but Borg had to pull out of the fight to care for his child who had brain surgery.
Borg was then scheduled to face Joseph Benavidez at at UFC Fight Night 139 in November 2018 but the bout was cancelled due to undisclosed medical reason. “The Tazmexican Devil” will finally get back inside the cage on Saturday.
Casey Kenney fought twice on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, but was unable to earn himself a contract through that avenue. He defeated Cee Jay Hamilton by way of unanimous decision in July 2017 but then dropped a split decision the following month to Adam Antolin.
With the addition of Kenney, the UFC Philadelphia fight card looks like this:
MAIN CARD (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET)
Edson Barboza vs. Justin Gaethje
David Branch vs. Jack Hermansson
Josh Emmett vs. Michael Johnson
Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Michelle Waterson
Paul Craig vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu
Sheymon Moraes vs. Sodiq Yusuff
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, 5 p.m. ET)
Jessica Aguilar vs. Marina Rodriguez
Desmond Green vs. Ross Pearson
Kevin Aguilar vs. Enrique Barzola
Kevin Holland vs. Gerald Meerschaert
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 3:30 p.m. ET)
Ray Borg vs. Casey Kenney
Maryna Moroz vs. Sabina Mazo
Mark De La Rosa vs. Alex Perez
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