Sometimes I wonder how fights ever get booked, considering how scared everyone is.
So it should come as no surprise to learn that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight contender Jimmie Rivera couldn’t land that showdown with former 135-pound kingpin Sean Shelby Cody Garbrandt.
“I know Cody was saying, ‘oh, maybe we’ll do another fight with TJ or fight Cruz.’ I just think he’s trying to duck me,” Rivera told Submission Radio. “I’ve sent plenty of stuff on social media and he won’t say one thing back. So, I just think he doesn’t want a hard fight, he wants an easy fight. He wants people that he thinks he can beat or that he knows he could beat, not guys that he doesn’t think he could beat.”
Easy fights are all the rage these days.
Instead of Garbrandt — who got his championship rematch — Rivera will face Marlon Moraes at the upcoming UFC Fight Night 131 mixed martial arts (MMA) event on FOX Sports 1, scheduled for June 1, 2018 inside Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, New York.
See that fight card here.
Depending on the return of Dominick Cruz, the bantamweight division will have a chance to restore order by the end of 2018, but it’s too soon to tell if “El Terror” will be a part of those plans.