PERTH, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 11: A general view of the Octagon during the UFC 221 event at Perth Arena on February 11, 2018 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
UFC Positions Several Fights For Mid-May Events
UFC in Mid-May is starting to fill out quickly for the upcoming May 13th and May 16th events. Ben Rothwell vs Ovince Saint Preux had been announced but several other fight plans have been discovered subsequently. Both the May 13th and May 16th cards are scheduled to go at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. Anthony Smith vs. Glover Teixeira headlines the May 13th event and Walt Harris vs. Alistair Overeem tops the marquee for May 16th.
UFC in Mid-May
These fights are rebooked from prior cards that fell by the wayside or are in the works. I will use *rebooked and **in the works to indicate the status of each of these bouts below.
UFC on May 13th
- Marvin Vettori vs. Karl Roberson *
- Andrei Arlovski vs. Philipe Lins *
- Sijara Eubanks vs. Sarah Moras *
UFC on May 16th
- Eryk Anders vs. Krzysztof Jotko *
- Song Yadong vs. Marlon Vera **
- Edson Barboza vs. Dan Ige **
Arlovski vs Lins moves from a card initially scheduled for May 2nd. Eubanks and Moras pivots from the canceled April 18th Brooklyn, New York show. Vettori and Roberson rebounds from initial April 25th Fight Night booking drops off. Anders vs Jotko looked to go down in Portland for UFC’s April 11h event (canceled due to COVID-19 like all the rest).
Also, some other interesting notes include Barboza’s foray to featherweight for this one. The top ten lightweight stalwart will look to try his luck at 145 lbs in a bit over two weeks. He looks to topple Ige who is on a five-fight win streak. Yadong and Vera pits two rising bantamweight contenders against one another. Both have impressive enough multi-fight win streaks (Song is unbeaten in his last eight bouts and Vera is riding a five-fight win streak).
These two events are fleshing themselves out as UFC continues to pursue the polarizing effort of promoting fights during a global pandemic.
