Robbie
Lawler and Bryan
Barberena have been elevated to the main stage at UFC
276.
Advertisement
The welterweight bout, which was originally slated for the main
portion of the preliminary card on ABC, will now serve as the first
bout on the pay-per-view draw. UFC president Dana White announced
the update to the lineup in an interview with Yahoo
Sports. The card required some shuffling after a flyweight
clash between Miesha Tate
and Lauren
Murphy that was originally slated for UFC 276 was postponed for
two weeks to UFC on ABC 3 due to COVID-19 protocols.
“What better fight … I mean, other than [Sean] O’Malley versus
[Pedro] Munhoz, how could you open the pay-per-view any better?”
White said.
“They are both built and wired exactly the same. They are both war
dogs who come forward, take big shots, and try to take your head
off. It should be an incredible fight.”
Lawler snapped a four-bout skid in his last outing, when he
defeated Nick Diaz via
third-round TKO at UFC 266 this past September. Prior to that, the
former welterweight champ had dropped consecutive fights against
Neil
Magny, Colby
Covington, Ben Askren
and Rafael dos
Anjos.
Barberena, meanwhile, has won three of his last four in the Octagon
and is coming off a split-decision triumph against Matt Brown at
UFC on ESPN 33 on March 26. Barberena recently signed a new
contract with the Las Vegas-based promotion after openly stating
that he’d
consider retirement if he wasn’t re-signed by the UFC.
UFC 276 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday
and is headlined by a middleweight championship clash between
Israel
Adesanya and Jared
Cannonier, while Alexander
Volkanovski and Max
Holloway square off in a featherweight title trilogy in the
co-main event. The pay-per-view card is availabile via ESPN+ and
begins at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.