Cory Sandhagen will now fight Rob Font at a
catchweight in the main event of UFC Nashville on Aug. 5, sources
told ESPN. Five-round fight.— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi)
July 20, 2023
A few injuries to top-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship contenders have
resulted in some significant card switches.
Per ESPN
on Thursday, Rob Font (20-6)
has been tapped as the replacement for the injured Umar
Nurmagomedov for
UFC Nashville. The Aug. 5 headliner now set as a 140-pound
catchweight affair, it will play out between Font and Cory
Sandhagen (16-4) over the course of five rounds. Font was
initially planning on facing Yadong Song
at UFC
292 two weeks later, but an injury to Song allows for Font to
take this matchup on short notice.
In April, Font bounced back from a two-decision skid to Jose Aldo and
Marlon
Vera by clocking Adrian
Yanez in the first round at UFC 287. Prior to the pair of
five-round defeats to Aldo and Vera, the Boston native had strung
together four straight wins over elite competition, including
current Bellator MMA champ Sergio
Pettis and former UFC champion Cody
Garbrandt. Not counting when he missed weight prior to the Vera
fight, this will be Font’s first outing outside of the bantamweight
division since 2014, when he had yet to make his UFC debut.
Sandhagen remains on the billing as the winner of his last two, as
he forced the doctors to intervene at the end of Round 4 against
Song to earn the stoppage last September. Returning in March,
Sandhagen outworked Vera over the course of five close rounds to
get the split nod. In the UFC, the only men to beat him have been
future or former champions Aljamain
Sterling, T.J.
Dillashaw and Petr Yan. On
his way up the division, “The Sandman” prevailed over the likes of
Frankie
Edgar, Marlon
Moraes and John
Lineker.
UFC on ESPN 50, also known as UFC Nashville, will play out on Aug.
5 inside of the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Beyond
the new main attraction, the co-main event is also different than
initially intended, as Tatiana
Suarez will collide with Jessica
Andrade at 115 pounds. Other matchups featured on the main card
include a light heavyweight banger between Dustin
Jacoby and Kennedy
Nzechukwu, and a featherweight battle when Diego Lopes
faces off against Gavin
Tucker.