Picture courtesy of Combate Americas
Gustavo Lopez fights Merab Dvalishvili at June 13th UFC
The UFC is acquiring a champion from outside of their promotion for this weekend’s show. A fight between Ray Borg and Merab Dvalishvili fell apart after Borg had to pull out for personal reasons. Ray Borg’s post on social media seemed to indicate it was tied to assisting his son. Borg’s son has an unfortunate history of dealing with a litany of health issues. Negotiations began with this news breaking and Gustavo Lopez became positioned as the prime candidate to replace Borg.
The Combate Americas bantamweight champion took to social media and announced the following via his personal Twitter: “Phone be ringing 😈 We stay ready!! Fighting this Saturday #UFC”. This Lopez tweet didn’t seem to sit too well with Combate Americas CEO/ UFC Co-Creator Campbell McLaren. McLaren would also utilize his personal Twitter platform to initially throw cold water on Lopez’s UFC news. The tweet stated, “Bad move from @Gustavo11Lopez he’s under contract with @combateamericas”.
Gustavo Lopez UFC
A third party would then get involved in this situation when Gustavo Lopez’s manager took to Twitter as well. Daniel Rubenstein tweeted out: “As a manager, I have made a mistake and @combateamericas does indeed have matching right to @Gustavo11Lopez and I have officially requested his release for him to fight this weekend in the UFC in Las Vegas. @campbellcombate”. Since this exchange of tweets, the conversation went into a bit of a brief standstill. Just minutes ago though, the Combate Americas figurehead broke the silence.
Combate Americas has decided to allow @Gustavo11Lopez to move forward and fight in the UFC this Saturday night. We wish him the best of luck with the rest of his career
— Campbell McLaren (@campbellcombate) June 11, 2020
Lopez has not competed in MMA since August of last year. That performance was a sub-two minute, first-round knockout against Joey Ruquet at Combate 42: Tahoe. The reigning CAMMA 135 lb king is currently riding a three-fight winning streak and made his first successful Combate Americas bantamweight title defense last time out.
UFC Fight Night: Eye vs Calvillo features Jessica Eye and Cynthia Calvillo topping the marquee. The card is Saturday, June 13th, and goes at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The preliminary portion of the event goes at 6:00 PM EST while the main card goes at 9:00 PM EST.
