Just when you thought UFC Vegas 17 couldn’t get any better, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) matchmakers came through and gave fight fans one more treat for the year-end event.
According to BJPenn.com, Jose Aldo and Marlon Vera will collide in main card action on the ESPN+-streamed event, which is set to go down on Dec. 19, 2020 inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Vera is coming off a huge win over Sean O’Malley, knocking him out in the very first round at UFC 252 (recap here). The win improved his mark to 6-1 over his last seven fights inside the Octagon, raising his stock immensely in the process. Shortly after the win, “Chito” called for a fight against Aldo, and the company was originally in talks to book the fight for this weekend’s (Sat., Nov. 21, 2020) UFC 255 event.
Aldo is looking to get back in the win column after getting knocked out by Petr Yan in the fifth and final round at UFC 251 this past July in a Bantamweight title fight on “Fight Island.” The loss was “Junior’s” third in a row, previously losing to Alexander Volkanovski and Marlon Moraes.
A win over Vera would go a long way in stopping the bleeding from Aldo’s longest losing streak of his career, while “Chito” can get a huge bump up in the rankings by taking out the former Featherweight champion of the world.
UFC Vegas 17 is set to feature a Welterweight showdown between Leon Edwards and Khamzat Chimaev. In further main card action, Marlon Moraes looks to get back on track against Rob Font, while Stephen Thompson takes on Geoff Neal in a pivotal fight at 170 pounds.