UFC 130 Edgar v Maynard III takes place on May 28 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. As the title suggests, UFC 130 is headlined by the third and hopefully final encounter between Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and number one contender Gray Maynard. With UFC 129 right around the corner, that can only mean that UFC 130 is a month away, here are some newsworthy items coming out of UFC 130.
Thus far, the biggest news going into UFC 130, is that bantamweight Brad Pickett has been removed from the card, due to an undisclosed injury. Pickett, who has an overall record of 20 and five and was set to make his UFC debut, has been replaced by Demetrious Johnson who has a record of nine and one. Johnson will step in and fight Miguel Torres whose overall record is 39 and three including one victory under the UFC banner. Demetrious Johnson replacing Brad Pickett is a kind of ironic move, as Johnson’s only loss came to Pickett, and now he is stepping in to replace him.
Both Demetrious Johnson and his new opponent Miguel Torres formerly fought under the now defunct WEC. Despite Johnson’s only loss coming at the hands of Pickett, this fight has huge implications, as the winner is most likely to face the winner of the Jose Aldo verses Mark Hominick fight at UFC 129 for the Bantamweight title.
The other big UFC news in regards to UFC 130 comes from the Middleweight division. Originally, set to have a bout with Wanderlei Silva at this event, Brian Stann now finds himself scrambling to get prepared to fight former Sengoku Middleweight Champion Jorge Santiago. Essentially, Stann and Silva’s promoters had been working out a deal for the last few months to set up the apparent fight; however Silva pulled out apparently because he was intimidated by the taller Stann.
