Daniel Cunningham
UFC Vegas 116 goes down in the Meta Apex in Las Vegas on April 25th and tonight, we learned of a big time featherweight matchup that’s being added to the card. Leo Guimaraes was the first to report tonight that former bantamweight champ and 5th ranked featherweight Aljamain Sterling (24-5) will take on 8th ranked Youssef Zalal (18-5-1).
Eurosport is now reporting that this will be the main event. The event was supposed to be headlined by a welterweight matchup between Joaquin Buckley and Sean Brady. At this point, there’s no word about that fight.
Starting with Sterling, he’ll be looking to win his second straight as he pushes for a UFC featherweight title fight.
Sterling moved up to 145 after losing the bantamweight title to Sean O’Malley. After winning his first fight at 145, he lost a close decision to Movsar Evloev in his second fight. The last time we saw him was back in August when he defeated former title challenger Brian Ortega.
Standing across from him in April will be Youssef Zalal. Zalal is in his second run with the UFC. He went 0-3-1 in his last four fights during his first run. After three good wins on the regional scene, he’s returned to the octagon going 5-0 with four finishes. Most recently, he submitted Josh Emmett back in October.
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