About a month and change away from its Boston card, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been given
lemons and made lemonade.

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Last week, ex-champ Henry
Cejudo
announced that he had suffered a shoulder injury and had been
forced to withdraw from UFC
292 on Aug. 19. On Friday, the management team of Marlon Vera
(20-8-1) – who was to be Cejudo’s opponent – broke
the news that Vera would remain on the billing. Now, he will
square off against Pedro
Munhoz (20-7, 2 NC) in what remains a top-10 tilt at 135
pounds.

Vera will still be looking to bounce back from a tough decision
defeat to Cory
Sandhagen in March, where one judge authored a 50-45 scorecard
for Sandhagen while another believed Vera had prevailed via a 48-47
tally. That loss blunted a four-fight win streak, where the
Ecuadorian had punted Dominick
Cruz and Frankie
Edgar with head kicks while claiming wins by decision over
Rob
Font and Davey Grant.
Those two complete contests with Font and Grant serve as half of
the decision wins in the lengthy career of “Chito.”

While he has struggled the last few years, with four losses on the
scorecards to Aljamain
Sterling, Edgar, Cruz and Jose Aldo,
Munhoz has remained a ranked fighter by topping the likes of
Jimmie
Rivera and Chris
Gutierrez. Additionally, “The Young Punisher” faced off against
future title challenger Sean
O’Malley, and an eye poke from the Montana native resulted in
the fight getting ruled a no contest. Beyond the no contest, Munhoz
has heard the final bell in every fight dating back to
mid-2019.

UFC 292 will take place at Boston’s TD Garden on Aug. 19, and two
title fights will sit atop the billing. The main attraction is a
bantamweight championship battle between Sterling and O’Malley,
while the co-featured fight is a strawweight title bout as Weili Zhang
looks to defend her strap against Amanda
Lemos. Also expected on the main card is a 135-pound affair
pitting Font against Yadong
Song, and a welterweight collision between Geoff Neal
and Ian
Garry.

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

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