With no opponent to be found, Jimmie Rivera gives up on appearing at UFC 219
MMA

With no opponent to be found, Jimmie Rivera gives up on appearing at UFC 219

Jimmie Rivera says that he skipped Thanksgiving, Christmas and his honeymoon to prepare for his ill-fated UFC 219 bout.

By John Balfe - 26 Dec 2017

It hasn’t been a particularly memorable Christmas for UFC bantamweight Jimmie Rivera.

The 21-1 New Jersey native had been placed in his highest profile match-up to date opposite Dominick Cruz in the co-main event of this weekend’s UFC 219 in Las Vegas. However, an arm injury suffered by Cruz in training forced his withdrawal.

John Lineker put his hand up and was duly awarded with the task of replacing Cruz but a tooth infection picked up mandated his own removal from the card leaving Rivera without a dance partner for the UFC’s last show of the year.

Enter Marlon Moraes. The Mark Henry trained fighter has fought twice since the middle of November, a decision against John Dodson and a stunning first round knockout of Aljamain Sterling and duly threw his hat into the ring to be the third replacement opposite Rivera on Dec. 30th.

But after deliberations and further concessions with weight, a deal could not be struck and that leaves Rivera off the Dec. 30th card which, as of now, has just ten fights on it.

And Rivera was not a happy man, adding that he missed out on Thanksgiving, Christmas and his honeymoon in order to prepare for the bout.

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