Bantamweight veteran Francisco Rivera is replacing the injured Henry Briones against Brad Pickett at UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs. Silva in London on February 27th.
Longtime UFC bantamweight Brad Pickett was scheduled to fight TUF Latin America’s Henry Briones on the main card of the upcoming London show on February 27th, but there’s been a change of plans. Briones is out with an undisclosed injury, and replacing him is the hard-hitting Francisco Rivera. Simon Head of The Sun newspaper confirmed the news on Friday.
Rivera (11-5, 1 NC) fought twice in 2015, scoring a quick and ferocious KO win vs. Alex Caceres, then engaged in a bonkers 128 seconds of mayhem with John Lineker at UFC 191, before losing by guillotine choke. Unlike Briones, Rivera is ranked at bantamweight, albeit at #15.
Pickett (24-11) is on a three-fight losing streak, which included a pair of losses to Chico Camus and Ian McCall at flyweight. The Brit returned to 135 after those setbacks, and fought Thomas Almeida at UFC 189. After dropping Almeida twice in the opening round, the Brazilian prospect rallied and KO’d Pickett with a huge flying knee, handing “One Punch” his first loss by strikes since 2005.
With all due respect to Briones, this is an upgrade in matchmaking, and definitely will be pegged as a contender to win FOTN honors.
UFC Fight Night in London is headlined by a five-round middleweight contest between Anderson Silva and Michael Bisping. The entire card will stream live on UFC Fight Pass.