UFC on ESPN+ 13 took a brief hit when Martin Day announced that he was out of his scheduled bout vs. Benito Lopez because of a knee injury that required surgery last week, but a replacement apparently has been found.
Vince Morales is expected to step in for Day and take on Sacramento’s Lopez in a bantamweight bout, two people with knowledge of the situation told MMA Junkie on Monday. The UFC has yet to make an official announcement.
Lopez (9-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) suffered his first pro loss in his last outing, a submission to Manny Bermudez. After earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series, Lopez notched his first UFC win over Albert Morales. He will look to get back to his winning ways in front of his home crowd at Golden1 Center on July 13.
Morales (9-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) will look to make a quick turnaround after scoring a unanimous-decision win over Aiemann Zahabi just last month at UFC on ESPN+ 9.
UFC Sacramento is headlined by a pair of top ranked women’s bantamweights as former featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie takes on undefeated Aspen Ladd. It will also feature the return of UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber, who meets Ricky Simon.
With the change, the latest UFC on ESPN+ 13 card now includes:
MAIN CARD (ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
- Germaine de Randamie vs. Aspen Ladd
- Urijah Faber vs. Ricky Simon
- Mirsad Bektic vs. Josh Emmett
- Beneil Dariush vs. Drakkar Klose
- Karl Roberson vs. opponent TBA
- Cezar Ferreira vs. Marvin Vettori
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 5 p.m. ET)
- Mike Rodriguez vs. Gian Villante
- Andre Fili vs. Sheymon Moraes
- Nicco Montano vs. Julianna Pena
- Darren Elkins vs. Ryan Hall
- Jonathan Martinez vs. Liu Pingyuan
- Brianna Van Buren vs. Livinha Souza
- Benito Lopez vs. Vince Morales
For more on UFC on ESPN+ 13, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
