Robbie Lawler steps in to face Neil Magny after Geoff Neal suffers health scare
Former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler is making his return to the Octagon in nearly a year and will face Neil Magny on August 29. Lawler will be replacing Geoff Neal who took to social media on Sunday and revealed a health scare, where he said he almost died, and was recently on a dialysis machine.
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“These past few weeks have been crazy, and that’s putting it lightly. It’s really hard to try to find an eloquent way to say “I almost died.” So screw it…I almost died…This really put a lot of things into perspective for me. Never did I ever think I would be hooked up to a dialysis machine before my 30s. Everything was going well for me. Was training every day, making money at work, just signed a contract for a huge fight, then BOOM, life hit me with a check hook. I’m just glad to be home after having to spend 1 week in the ICU. Stay healthy out there y’all and listen to your body at all times.”
Lawler steps in for Neal after being away from competition for over a year, with his last fight coming as a loss to former interim champion, Colby Covington. The former champion will enter this fight against Magny on a three-fight losing streak, getting one win in his last four fights. The news of Lawler stepping in for Neal was first reported by Marcel Dorff of MMA DNA.
G.Neal out. Robbie Lawler in, will fight Neil Magny at UFC event on August 29th. #UFC #MMA #UFCESPN #UFCVegas7 pic.twitter.com/tn739V61jJ
— Marcel Dorff 🇳🇱🇮🇩 (@BigMarcel24) August 10, 2020
Magny will enter this fight on a two-fight winning streak, picking up wins over Jingliang Li and Anthony Rocco Martin, as he continues to look to rise up the welterweight rankings. Both Lawler and Magny sit right inside the top-15 in the welterweight rankings, and a win for either could launch them into the top-10 of the very deeply talented division.
UFC Vegas 8 on ESPN+ will take place on August 29, and will be headlined by a light heavyweight matchup between former title challenger Anthony Smith against Aleksandar Rakic.
