Welterweights Rafael dos Anjos and Leon Edwards will reportedly fight at UFC San Antonio’s main event, in July.
Crisis averted, it seems the UFC has finally found a main event for its upcoming San Antonio card, which is merely 37 days away. According to Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole, former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos and rising contender Leon Edwards will be the ones to take the spotlight in Texas. On Wednesday, there was a report from Ariel Helwani that flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko and Liz Carmouche were in contention to be the headliner, but talks later cooled.
Furthermore, Iole also pointed out that a light heavyweight bout between former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold and contender Jan Blachowicz, expected to take place at UFC 239, on July 6, was in the works to take the spot, but Rockhold had a Ralph Lauren commercial for the same day.
Main event for UFC on ESPN 4 in San Antonio finalized: It will be Rafael dos Anjos vs Leon Edwards, five rounds. UFC wanted Blachowicz-Rockhold to move there, but Rockhold is filming a Ralph Lauren Polo commercial that day which couldn’t be moved.
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) June 13, 2019
Fresh off a submission win over Kevin Lee in May, former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos (29-11) will try to keep the ball rolling as he will have little to no time to recover from the gruelling affair, which he won via fourth-round submission. Before the victory, the 34-year-old suffered back-to-back unanimous decision losses to Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington.
Currently on a seven-fight winning streak, a victory over dos Anjos could be what propels Leon Edwards (17-3) towards a title shot. So far, ‘Rocky’ already defeated notable names in the division, such as Donald Cerrone, Gunnar Nelson, Vicente Luque, among others. Additionally, the 27-year-old’s last loss, in December 2015, came by the hands of now welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman.
UFC San Antonio airs live on ESPN on July 20th. Other notable bouts include Liz Carmouche vs. Roxanne Modafferi, James Vick vs. Daniel Hooker, and Greg Hardy vs. Juan Adams.