UFC on ESPN 10 has last one of it’s main card fighters as former title challenger, Ray Borg (13-5), has pulled out of his fight against Merab Dvalishvili (10-4) due to personal reasons. We do not know why the former UFC title challenger had to pull out of this fight. This would have been his second performance at bantamweight after the UFC forced him to come up from flyweight due to weight issues. Stepping in on short notice to make his UFC debut is Combate Americas bantamweight champion, Gustavo Lopez (11-4).
UFC Debut For Lopez
Lopez comes into this fight on a three fight winning streak. All three of Lopez’s last three wins have ended in the first round. In his eleven career victories, he’s only gone to a decision once. This is a huge opportunity for the Cambate Americas champion who is getting to fight on a main card in the UFC on the biggest network in sports for his debut. With the lack of a camp, the UFC has decided to make this fight a catchweight fight. Instead of meeting at 135 pounds, the two fighters have agreed to meet at 140 pounds.
Dangerous Switch
For Dvalishvili, the opponent change is pretty significant. In Borg, Dvalishvili had an opponent where I thought the path to victory was relatively clear. He just needed to land two takedowns to secure the victory. If he got Borg down, I wasn’t sure Borg was getting back up. Dvalishvili is going for his fourth consecutive win in the UFC in this fight. Now he’s got to go up against a very hungry, Gustavo Lopez, who has really good submissions as well as real knockout power at 135 pounds. This is a much more dangerous fight for Dvalishvili if you ask me. If you’re not familiar with Lopez, you can check out his last fight against Joey Ruquet below. Lopez knocked Ruquet out cold in the first round.
