The ACL injury to UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz set off a domino effect to the UFC 148 card. Urijah Faber and Cruz were supposed to setting their trilogy at the event, but now it was announced that Renan Barao will replace Cruz and fight Faber for the UFC Interim Bantamweight title instead.
Barao was originally scheduled to face Ivan Menjivar on the same card, but the move to replace Cruz left Menjivar without an opponent until now. The official UFC Twitter account released the information that Menjivar will now be facing Mike Easton at UFC 148.
UFC 148 will be headlined by the UFC Middleweight Title fight between current champion Anderson Silva and longtime nemesis Chael Sonnen.
Ivan Menjivar (24-8) has won three consecutive fights, most recently a first round submission win over John Albert in February. The longtime MMA veteran has found new life as a bantamweight after competing against much larger opponents throughout his career.
Mike Easton (12-1) has won seven consecutive fights, most recently a hard fought unanimous decision victory over UFC newcomer Jared Papazian in January. Easton was slotted to face Yves Jabouin last week at UFC on FUEL TV 3, but had to withdraw from the bout due to an injury.
The UFC 148 event is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on July 7th. The fight card is as follows:
Main Card
- Middleweight Championship bout: Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen
- Interim Bantamweight Championship bout: Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barão
- Light Heavyweight bout: Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz
- Middleweight bout: Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le
- Welterweight bout: Dong Hyun Kim vs. Demian Maia
Preliminary Card
- Bantamweight bout: Ivan Menjivar vs. Mike Easton
- Featherweight bout: Chad Mendes vs. Cody McKenzie
- Lightweight bout: Gleison Tibau vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
- Middleweight bout: Constantinos Philippou vs. Riki Fukuda
- Lightweight bout: Melvin Guillard vs. Fabrício Camões
- Lightweight bout: John Alessio vs. Shane Roller