Fighter injuries and mix-and-match bookings continue during a busy UFC schedule.
Days after Trevin Jones and Aaron Phillips were lined up to fight at UFC on ESPN 27, the former has a new opponent on a different date. With Phillips out on the bout, Jones (13-6 MMA, 1-0 UFC) now is expected to take on Ronnie Lawrence at UFC on ESPN 28 with verbal agreements in place.
Prior to the lineup change, Lawrence (7-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) was expected to fight John Castaneda on the July 31 event, but Castaneda has also withdrawn from the card.
Two people with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie of the targeted booking but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Jones was originally scheduled to fight Tony Kelley on July 24. When Kelly withdrew, Phillips, who lost his opponent, Cameron Else, was matched up with Jones before the fight was pushed back a week and Lawrence stepped in. Regardless of opponent, Jones now seeks his second UFC victory after a win over Mario Bautista in March.
As for Lawrence, the Dana White’s Contender Series signee made his successful promotional debut in February, when he defeated Vince Cachero via third-round ground-and-pound stoppage. The win was his fourth in a row, overall.
With the changes, the UFC on ESPN 28 lineup includes:
- Uriah Hall vs. Sean Strickland
- Bryan Barberena vs. Jason Witt
- Jinh Yu Frey vs. Ashley Yoder
- Rafa Garcia vs. Chris Gruetzemacher
- Collin Anglin vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan
- Orion Cosce vs. Phillip Rowe
- Cheyanne Buys vs. Gloria de Paula
- Mounir Lazzez vs. Niklas Stolze
- Kyung Ho Kang vs. Rani Yahya
- Danny Chavez vs. TBA
- Alex Perez vs. Matt Schnell
- Nicco Montano vs. Wu Yanan
- Zarrukh Adashev vs. Ryan Benoit
- Sam Alvey vs. Roman Kopylov
- Trevin Jones vs. Ronnie Lawrence
