John Makdessi
A lightweight fight booked for early in the summer months is being moved to “International Fight Week” in July, instead.
A fight between John Makdessi (13-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) and Mehdi Baghdad (11-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) has been shifted from UFC 199 to UFC Fight Night 90. A UFC official confirmed the change in to MMAjunkie today.
UFC Fight Night 90 takes place July 7 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The entire event streams on UFC Fight Pass. The bout’s original home at UFC 199 takes place June 4 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., near Los Angeles with a main card on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.
Makdessi, a 30-year-old Canadian, is likely in a must-win situation. Although he recently put together a 4-1 run that included knockout wins over Shane Campbell and Renee Forte, he’s since suffered back-to-back losses to Donald Cerrone (TKO) and Yancy Medeiros (split decision).
He looks to avoid a third straight defeat when he meets Baghdad, a 30-year-old Frenchman who joined the UFC after a short run on “The Ultimate Fighter 22.” On the undercard of the show’s live finale, he suffered a submission loss to Chris Wade and snapped a seven-fight winning streak in official pro competition that included seven stoppages and an RFA title win.
The latest UFC Fight Night 90 card now includes:
- Champ Rafael dos Anjos vs. Eddie Alvarez – for lightweight title
- Mitch Clarke vs. Joseph Duffy
- Mehdi Baghdad vs. John Makdessi
And UFC 199 now includes:
- Champ Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman – for middleweight title
- Champ Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber – for bantamweight title
- Bobby Green vs. Dustin Poirier
- Evan Dunham vs. Leonardo Santos
- Kevin Casey vs. Elvis Mutapcic
- Luiz Henrique da Silva vs. Jonathan Wilson
- “Maestro” Dong Hyun Kim vs. Polo Reyes
- Tom Breese vs. Sean Strickland
- B.J. Penn vs. Dennis Siver
- Clay Guida vs. Brian Ortega
- Jessica Andrade vs. Jessica Penne
- Dan Henderson vs. Hector Lombard
- Max Holloway vs. Ricardo Lamas
For more on UFC Fight Night 90 and UFC 199, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
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