Marlon Vera will look to extract some revenge on Davey Grant after their first meeting over five years ago.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that Vera and Grant will meet in a rematch at the UFC’s event on June 19 at a location yet to be determined. MMA DNA was first to report the booking.
In their first encounter, Grant earned a unanimous decision win over Vera at UFC Fight Night 84 in February 2016.
Vera will make his first octagon walk in 2021 after a rather interesting 2020 campaign. “Chito” would begin the past year with a controversial decision loss to Song Yadong at UFC Jacksonville in May before picking up a first-round TKO win over Sean O’Malley at UFC 252. The win over O’Malley set Vera up for the biggest fight of his career, a co-main event bout against Jose Aldo at UFC Vegas 17 in December where Aldo was victorious via unanimous decision.
After suffering back-to-back submission losses to Damian Stasiak and Manny Bermudez, Grant has won his last three fights. The 35-year-old is showing big time power in his hands with consecutive knockouts of Martin Day and Jonathan Martinez. The TUF 18 finalist is set to make his eighth promotional appearance.
The UFC’s June 19 event will be headlined by a featherweight matchup between Chan Sung Jung and Dan Ige.