The Ultimate Fighting Championship now has a main
event for every fight card to April besides its Saudi Arabia
show.
Via the promotion
on Friday, UFC Atlantic City, also likely called UFC on
ESPN 53, now has its main attraction. Welterweights will take
center stage at the Boardwalk Hall, as Sean Brady
(15-1) takes on Vicente
Luque (22-9-1). The two will collide on March 30 in Atlantic
City, New Jersey.
Brady successfully rebounded from his first defeat—a knockout loss
to Belal
Muhammad where he appeared to completely run out of gas—by
tapping Kelvin
Gastelum in the third round of their December match. Brady
began his professional career by racking up 15 straight wins,
including five in the Octagon. The Philadelphia native claimed
notable victories over Jake
Matthews and Michael
Chiesa to put himself in top-10 contention.
Always-entertaining Luque also broke out of a skid by topping
Rafael dos
Anjos on the scorecards last year. Before then, he fell short
to Muhammad by decision and succumbed to strikes from Geoff Neal,
for his first career losing streak. Prior to those two losses, “The
Silent Assassin” had won 10 of his last 11 outings, with the lone
blemish coming against Stephen
Thompson. Luque is two stoppage victories shy of Matt Brown’s
welterweight record (15), and his eight post-fight bonuses are two
behind divisional leader Chris Lytle
(10).
The UFC on ESPN show on March 30 will play out in front of fans in
Atlantic City, New Jersey, for the first time April 2018. Its
likely co-featured matchup comes in a flyweight title eliminator
between Erin
Blanchfield and Manon
Fiorot. Other key pairings on the fight card include Chris
Weidman vs. Bruno Silva
at welterweight, Dominick
Reyes vs. Carlos
Ulberg in the light heavyweight division and Virna
Jandiroba against Lupita
Godinez in a strawweight clash.