This weekend, at UFC Utica, Jimmie Rivera — owner of one of the most impressive winning streaks in all of MMA (20 victories in pro competition) — will do something he has never done in his UFC career: close the show. The 21-1 bantamweight gets his first UFC main event on Saturday opposite another first-time-headliner, Marlon Moraes (20-5-1).
The match-up, which features the promotion’s 4th and 5th ranked bantamweights, comes after an unusually public period of attempted match-making on the parts of many of the division’s top fighters.
Since T.J. Dillashaw dethroned Cody Garbrandt at UFC 217 last November, the division’s heaviest hitters have been sparring online and revealing who, when, and where they want to fight (as well as sharing their ire when this doesn’t come to fruition).