Song Yadong vs. Ricky Simon moved to headline UFC Vegas 72
The UFC has found its new main event for UFC Vegas 72 on April 29.
UFC Vegas 72 was supposed to be headlined by a lightweight fight between Arman Tsarukyan and Renato Moicano. Yet, Moicano suffered an injury and no replacement opponent was found. Now, with less than two weeks to go before the event, the UFC announced Song Yadong vs. Ricky Simon will serve as the main event, with Simon’s coach first breaking the news on social media.
BREAKING: We have a bantamweight barn burner stepping into the main event spotlight next Saturday, April 29th! 🔥@SongYadongLFG and @RickySimonUFC go head-to-head for #UFCVegas72! pic.twitter.com/yY2VW4DMxP
— UFC (@ufc) April 18, 2023
Yadong vs. Simon was expected to serve as the co-main event of UFC Vegas 71 this Saturday so will instead have to wait a week to fight but will now headline the card. This will be Simon’s first UFC main event while it will be Yadong’s second straight as he is coming off a fourth-round TKO loss to Cory Sandhagen due to a cut above his eye.
Song Yadong (19-7-1) is coming off the TKO loss to Sandhagen in his first UFC main event which snapped his three-fight winning streak. On the win streak, he beat Marlon Moraes by TKO, Julio Arce by TKO, and Casey Kenney by split decision. The 25-year-old has been in the UFC since 2017 and is ranked eighth at bantamweight. In the UFC, he’s 8-2-1 with notable wins over Marlon Vera, Alejandro Perez, and Vince Morales.
Ricky Simon (20-3) is riding a four-fight win streak and coming off a second-round submission win over Jack Shore back in July. Prior to that, he knocked out Raphael Assuncao, beat Brian Kelleher by decision, submitted Gaetano Pirrello and beat Ray Borg by split decision. The win over Borg snapped his two-fight losing skid as he lost to Rob Font by decision and was TKO’d by Urijah Faber. Simon is currently ranked 10th at bantamweight and is 8-2 in the UFC with his other three wins over Rani Yahya, Montel Jackson, and Merab Dvalishvili.
With Yadong vs. Simon headlining the card, UFC Vegas 72 is as follows:
- Song Yadong vs. Ricky Simon
- Caio Borralho vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk
- Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Marcos Rogerio
- Cody Brundage vs. Rodolfo Vieira
- Ange Loosa vs. Josh Quinlan
- Emily Ducote vs. Polyana Viana
- Natan Levy vs. Pete Rodriguez
- Brian Kelleher vs. Journey Newson
- Martin Buday vs. Jake Collier
- Cody Durden vs. Charles Johnson
- Julian Erosa vs. Fernando Padilla
- Hailey Cowan vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth
- Irina Alekseeva vs. Stephanie Egger
