Two-Time Title Contender To Fight Kamaru Usman In UFC Chile Headliner
The UFC has officially announced the new main event for the upcoming UFC Chile event.
It was well established last week that Santiago Ponzinibbio had been forced to withdraw from his headlining bout against Kamaru Usman due to a hand injury.
Ponzinibbio is 8-2 inside the Octagon and has picked up six straight wins coming into this bout. Now, he’s slated to undergo surgery.
The UFC announced on late Thursday night that former title contender Demian Maia would step in on short notice to accept the fight against Usman.
Maia has lost his last two fights to break a seven-fight winning streak. First, he lost to UFC welterweight champion at UFC 214 last July for the title by decision then suffered a unanimous-decision loss to Colby Covington three months later.
On the flip side, Usman is riding seven consecutive wins and has won all seven of his bouts in the UFC.
UFC Chile is set to take place on Saturday, May 19, 2018, at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile.
The main card will air on FOX Sports 1 at while the preliminary card will be split broadcasted on FOX Sports 1 at and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass. Here is how the current card looks:
Demian Maia vs. Kamaru Usman
Andrea Lee vs. Veronica Macedo
Chad Laprise vs. Vicente Luque
Alexa Grasso vs. Tatiana Suarez
Guido Cannetti vs. Diego Rivas
Poliana Botelho vs. Syuri Kondo
Humberto Bandenay vs. Gabriel Benitez
Zak Cummings vs. Michel Prazeres
Henry Briones vs. Frankie Saenz
Jared Cannonier vs. Dominick Reyes
Claudio Puelles vs. Felipe Silva
Ray Borg vs. Brandon Moreno
Enrique Barzola vs. Brandon Davis
