January 16th business is boomin pic.twitter.com/uDyYXSfoAz
— Baldy Ed (@brianboom135)
October 9, 2020
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. A fun scrap nixed in September has been rescheduled for a
newly announced
Ultimate Fighting Championship card in January. The news first coming out on Friday from
MMA Fighting, Brian
Kelleher (22-11) has since confirmed on Twitter
that he will be competing on a
Jan. 16 UFC event. On this fight card, he will be facing
Ricky
Simon (16-3) at bantamweight, in a bout previously booked on
UFC Fight Night 176 only to fall off when one of Simon’s cornermen
tested positive for COVID-19. There is not currently a venue set,
although it is expected to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas
due to the coronavirus pandemic still affecting the U.S. There are
no other bouts currently set for the event.
Kelleher remained on UFC Fight Night 176 after Simon withdrew,
where he was planning on facing Kevin
Natividad as a short-notice replacement. Natividad also
withdrew from the card for undisclosed reasons, and the promotion
had Ray
Rodriguez on standby in case Natividad was not cleared to
compete. “Boom” went on to lock up a 39-second guillotine choke to
earn what was at the time
quickest submission of the year in the UFC, and the fastest
since Danny
Henry’s 39-second guillotine of Hakeem
Dawodu in 2018.
Simon snapped a two-fight skid in the form of a knockout loss to
Urijah
Faber and a decision defeat to Rob Font by
taking an
unexpected split decision over Ray Borg in
May. The upset loss to Faber ended an eight-fight win streak
including a trio of UFC wins over Merab
Dvalishvili, Montel
Jackson and Rani Yahya.
Against Dvalishvili, Simon earned the latest possible finish in a
three-round UFC bout, putting the Georgian to sleep with a
guillotine choke at the 5:00 buzzer of the third round.
