A former Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholder has
found a suitable replacement for his March appearance.
News of Julio Arce’s
withdrawal from UFC
285 broke on Monday, as a knee injury forced him out of his
expected pairing with Cody
Garbrandt (12-5). Stepping up on about a month’s notice,
Trevin
Jones (13-9, 1 NC) has been tapped as the new opponent opposite
Garbrandt. The UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN
first brought this to light on Friday.
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The ex-bantamweight king, Garbrandt has fallen on hard times the
last several years. Since claiming the throne from Dominick
Cruz in 2016, Garbrandt has fought just six times, and
prevailed only once against Raphael
Assuncao in 2020. Averaging about a fight a year – although
Garbrandt did not set foot in the cage in 2020 – “No Love” will
come into this crucial contest on a two-fight skid. His 2021
campaign did not go his way, as a five-round headliner against
Rob
Font ended up with Font getting his hand raised, and a return
outing almost seven months later ended with him getting knocked out
in the first round at flyweight by Kai Kara
France.
Even though he is on a three-fight losing streak of his own, Jones
has won more recently than his opponent. The lone victory inside
the Octagon for the Guam native came in March 2021, where he
knocked out Mario
Bautista in Round 1. Although he dominated Timur
Valiev in his UFC debut in 2020, a failed drug test for
marijuana wiped the win off his ledger. While the majority of
Garbrandt’s career wins have come by knockout, “5 Star” has never
been stopped with strikes.
UFC 285 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on March 4,
and the main attraction will see Jon Jones and
Ciryl
Gane tangle for the vacant heavyweight throne. The co-headliner
slot goes to another title fight, as flyweight queen Valentina
Shevchenko looks to keep an iron grip on her crown against
Alexa
Grasso. The main card will be rounded out by a lightweight
battle between Dan Hooker
and Jalin
Turner, a welterweight encounter pitting Geoff Neal
against Shavkat
Rakhmonov and a middleweight contest as Bo Nickal
makes his much-anticipated debut against Jamie
Pickett.