UFC 292 has added a massive bantamweight fight to it’s main card. Dana White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto this evening that former two-division champion Henry Cejudo (16-3) would be taking on Marlon “Chito” Vera (22-8-1) on August 19th.
For Chito Vera, this is a massive opportunity to get right back into the title picture. Vera had won four fights in a row which led him to a main event back in March against Cory Sandhagen. That night, Vera really had a hard time getting going and lost a decision to Sandhagen.
It was a disappointing end to the best run of his career. However, Chito vowed to make a big time return and he wanted to stay active against top competition. Well, it doesn’t get much better than competing against “Triple C” on a PPV main card where the headliner is for the bantamweight title.
UFC 292
Henry Cejudo wanted to compete on August 19th more than anything. The dream was to face Sean O’Malley had he won the title against Aljamain Sterling, but Cejudo ultimately fell just short of that dream falling to Sterling by split decision back in early May.
UFC 292 takes place on the fifteen-year anniversary of Cejudo winning Olympic Gold for the United States in freestyle wrestling. Cejudo wanted to celebrate the anniversary by competing inside the octagon. Originally, Cejudo wanted to fight Merab Dvalishvili.
However, Merab had to have surgery on his hand so that wasn’t an option. After Cejudo and the UFC looked at several options, the best option arrived at Chito Vera and now we will see these two go at it on August 19th. This one should be fun.