John Lineker will finally make his return to bantamweight. And it should be a bangfest, as he takes on heavy handed Francisco Rivera at UFC 191. The news was confirmed by the UFC during a list of fight announcements made on the UFC Fight Night: Duffee vs. Mir broadcast.
After missing weight in four of his eight UFC flyweight bouts, Lineker was forced to move up to the 135 pounds division even though he was close to a title fight against Demetrious Johnson. In fact, he left the weight class on a two fight winning streak which included a unanimous decision win over contender Ian McCall.
Rivera, who had quite an impressive streak in 2013, hit a brick wall when he was bested by Takeya Mizugaki and then controversially by Urijah Faber last year. But in June, Cisco bounced back when he knocked out Alex Caceres in only 21 seconds.
Now, the two exciting strikers pair will square off on the preliminary card of UFC 191 in Las Vegas on September 5th. The main event is a fly weight title fight rematch between defending champion Demetrious Johnson and the heavy-handed John Dodson.
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