Dana White Confirms Cain Velasquez vs. Francis Ngannou
Dana White confirms the fight booking between former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and title contender Francis Ngannou.
This fight was reported earlier this month to be close to finalizing. Now, the UFC President has confirmed to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that this fight will indeed take place.
Velasquez was unable to compete this or last year. If you recall, he was most recently supposed to fight fellow former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum. However, he had to pull out of the bout due to a lingering injury in his back, which ultimately required surgery. His last fight saw him beat Travis Browne way back at UFC 200 in July 2016.
Ngannou rebounded in a big way with a first-round knockout over the formerly surging Curtis Blaydes at November 24’s UFC Beijing.
UFC On ESPN is set to take place on Saturday, February 17, 2019 at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. The main card will air on ESPN. The preliminary card will be split broadcasted on ESPN and the TV network’s streaming service, ESPN +. The promotion will be adding more bouts in the coming weeks. Here’s the updated card:
Heavyweight: Cain Velasquez vs. Francis Ngannou
Women’s Strawweight: Cortney Casey vs. Cynthia Calvillo
Bantamweight: Jimmie Rivera vs. Aljamain Sterling
Featherweight: Alex Caceres vs. Kron Gracie
Lightweight: James Vick vs. Paul Felder
Featherweight: Andre Fili vs. Myles Jury
Welterweight: Vicente Luque vs. Bryan Barberena
Bantamweight: Renan Barão vs. Luke Sanders
Lightweight: Scott Holtzman vs. Nik Lentz
Bantamweight: Benito Lopez vs. Manny Bermudez
Women’s Strawweight: Aleksandra Albu vs. Emily Whitmire
Women’s Strawweight: Jessica Penne vs. Jodie Esquibel
