Two previously scheduled bouts have been moved to UFC
258.
A bantamweight bout pitting Jimmie
Rivera against Pedro
Munhoz and a welterweight scrap between Dhiego Lima
and Belal
Muhammad will now take place on Feb. 13.
MMAFighting.com first brought word of the Munhoz-Rivera
rebooking, while Muhammed revealed the rescheduling of his fight
against Rivera on his podcast.
UFC 258 is expected to feature a welterweight championship bout
between Kamaru
Usman and Gilbert
Burns.
Munhoz-Rivera was initially targeted for a now-canceled UFC Fight
Night event on Jan. 30 before being relocated to UFC on ESPN 20 on
Jan. 20. It is currently unclear why the bantamweight fight has
been removed from the Jan. 20 event. Muhammad and Lima were
supposed to meet at UFC Fight Night 183 on Dec. 19 before Muhammed
tested positive for COVID-19.
Rivera and Munhoz initially squared off more than five years ago at
UFC Fight Night 77, with Rivera claiming a split-decision triumph.
That was part of a 20-bout professional winning streak for Rivera,
who is just 2-3 in the Octagon since 2018. Most recently, “El
Terror” snapped a two-bout skid with a three-roud verdict against
Cody
Stamann at UFC on ESPN 13 on July 15.
Munhoz, meanwhile, is coming off a narrow split-decision defeat to
Frankie
Edgar at UFC on ESPN 15. Prior to that, “The Young Punisher”
had a three-bout winning streak snapped in a decision loss to
current No. 1 contender Aljamain
Sterling at UFC 238.
Lima is currently on a three-bout winning streak after earning
victories over Chad
Laprise, Court McGee
and Luke
Jumeau in his last three promotional appearances. “The Ultimate
Fighter 19” finalist is 4-5 over the course of two separate UFC
stints.
Muhammad is also on a three-bout winning streak, including a
unanimous verdict over Lyman Good in
his last outing at UFC on ESPN 11 on June 20. Dating back to 2017,
“Remember the Name” has been victorious in eight of nine UFC bouts,
with his only defeat coming at the hands of Geoff
Neal.