UFC Denver has a new main event.
There’s a good news/bad news situation for fans who were looking forward to the UFC Denver main event on November 10th.
The bad news is that former UFC champion and current featherweight contender Frankie Edgar is injured and out of his showdown with Chan Sung Jung, aka “The Korean Zombie.” I’ve personally lost count of the number of UFC main or co-main event changes we’ve seen in 2018, but just assume it’s at least the 10,000th.
As for the good news? There will be a replacement opponent to take on TKZ, and it’s Yair Rodriguez. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reported this news late Friday night.
Rodriguez (10-2) is replacing the very man who handed him his only UFC loss way back in May 2017. Since then, the Mexican prospect has been inactive and nearly booted from the promotion outright after a promotional dispute over turning down fights against Ricardo Lamas and Zabit Magomedsharipov. Rodriguez and the UFC eventually settled things down and he was booked to face Magomedsharipov at UFC 228, only to withdraw due to injury. The TUF Latin America winner does have experience in five-round main events, having stopped B.J. Penn in January 2017 and taken a split decision over Alex Caceres in August 2016.
Given the entertainment value of both TKZ and Rodriguez, this is as quality a substitute fight as you could manage on such short notice.
UFC Denver also features a co-main event between welterweights Donald Cerrone and Mike Perry. It’ll be the UFC’s 25th Anniversary show, originating from the same location as the very first UFC card.