Jimmie Rivera and Marlon Moraes headlining bantamweight bout at UFC Fight Night 131 that will take place June 1 at Adirondack Bank Center in Utica. Rivera’s initial focus was to get the fight with the best of the best in the UFC bantamweight division — Cody Garbrandt. Rivera didn’t want to fight Marlon Moraes this year after UFC 219 failed to come to fruition on short notice last December.
However, bantamweight contender Rivera couldn’t land a showdown with former 135-pound kingpin Cody Garbrandt, who is slated to meet TJ Dillashaw for a championship rematch at UFC 227. Rivera who spoke with submission radio and said Cody ducked him for an easier fight: (Quote via MMAMania)
“I know Cody was saying, ‘oh, maybe we’ll do another fight with TJ or fight Cruz.’ I just think he’s trying to duck me,” Rivera told Submission Radio. “I’ve sent plenty of stuff on social media and he won’t say one thing back. So, I just think he doesn’t want a hard fight, he wants an easy fight. He wants people that he thinks he can beat or that he knows he could beat, not guys that he doesn’t think he could beat.”
Rivera hasn’t lost a fight since 2008 and has gone undefeated in all five of his UFC appearances. He hasn’t competed in the Octagon since scoring an animous decision win over Thomas Almeida back in 2017.
So who knows Cody and Rivera meet sometime later after finishing their upcoming respective bouts.
