Yadong Song has pulled out of his UFC 292 fight with Rob Font on August 19th. We still don’t know why but the American already has another opponent confirmed.
Font will now be facing Cory Sandhagen at UFC Nashville on August 5th. He replaces the injured Umar Nurmagomedov who appeared to dislocate his shoulder during a sparring session at American Top Team.
Earlier this week Yadong shared photo of himself mountain biking which would be an unusual choice of hobby for a fighter in the final stages of fight camp. Reports suggest that the Chinese fighter is injured but the exact nature of the injury has not been disclosed.
View this post on Instagram
First defence
As previously announced Weili Zhang is set to make the first defence of the strawweight title she captured for the second time on this card. She takes on Amanda Lemos in the co-main event at UFC 292.
The event is set for the TD Garden in Boston. Lemos is currently ranked #4, coming off back to back wins and had been expected to challenge Zhang for the strawweight title next.
But there had been some speculation Xiaonan Yan could jump the queue after her impressive win over Jessica Andrade at UFC 288 earlier this month.
She will be grateful that her opponent is not American as Zhang was mercilessly booed during the fights with Namajunas and admitted afterwards it had affected her. Lemos is from Brazil and unlikely to be particularly popular with the Boston crowd.
GIVE HER THE BELT BACK 🏆@MMAWeili recaptures gold at #UFC281!! pic.twitter.com/su4ioC7DIP
— UFC (@ufc) November 13, 2022
Bantamweight title
One fighter who is bound to get good support in Boston is Sean O’Malley. He has Irish heritage and will have the Boston crowd firmly behind him when he challenges bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.
Sterling will be making the fourth defence of his bantamweight belt although he has not won many fans during his stint as champion. Perhaps because two of his last four wins have been split decisions while he won the belt when Petr Yan was disqualified for an illegal knee.
UFC 292, Boston, August 19th
Aljamain Sterling (c) vs. Sean O’Malley (For bantamweight title)
Zhang Weili (c) vs. Amanda Lemos (For strawweight title)
Marlon Vera vs. Pedro Munhoz (Bantamweight)
Geoff Neal vs. Ian Machado Garry (Welterweight)
Cody Garbrandt vs. Mario Bautista (Bantamweight)
Chris Weidman vs. Brad Tavares (Middleweight)
Andre Petroski vs. Gerald Meerschaert (Middleweight)
Andrea Lee vs. Natália Silva (Flyweight)
Gregory Rodrigues vs. Dennis Tiuliulin (Middleweight)
Karine Silva vs. Maryna Moroz (Flyweight)
