Terrance
McKinney will be fighting at UFC Fight Night 230 this weekend, after
all.
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“T. Wrecks” (14-6) was originally slated to face Chris
Duncan at the UFC Apex on Oct. 14, but that matchup fell through days after it was announced. The
Ultimate Fighting Championship had since been trying to find a
new opponent for McKinney and finally found one in Brendon
Marotte (8-1), who steps up on less than a week’s notice to
make his promotional debut. The news of the booking was first
reported by McKinney on
an Instagram live session with The Schmo.
This will be a quick turnaround for McKinney, who is coming off a
first-round knockout win over Mike
Breeden in August. It will also be the fourth outing of the
year for the 29-year-old, who suffered stoppage losses against
Ismael
Bonfim and Nazim
Sadykhov in January and July respectively. McKinney also stated
that he’d ideally would like to make another walk to the Octagon
before the year ends.
Marotte recently returned to action after a three-year hiatus,
picking up consecutive stoppage wins over Dion Rubio
and Lionel
Young under the banner of Combat Zone MMA, a promotion owned by
UFC featherweight contender Calvin
Kattar. A part of the New England Cartel, the 26-year-old New
Hampshire native works closely with Kattar and coach Tyson
Chartier amongst others.
UFC Fight Night 230, also known as “UFC Vegas 81,” takes place on
Oct. 14 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The 12-fight card is
headlined by a high-stakes featherweight match between Sodiq
Yusuff and Edson
Barboza, with flyweight contenders Jennifer
Maia and Viviane
Araujo set to meet in the co-main event.