5 bouts added to McGregor-headlined UFC 229 card in Las Vegas
Conor McGregor and lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov have some company on the UFC 229 card at T-Mobile Arena.
UFC officials confirmed five additional bouts to the Review-Journal on Thursday for the Oct. 6 card in Las Vegas, highlighted by a flyweight contender bout between Sergio Pettis and Jussier Formiga.
Pettis, who has 11 fights in the UFC and is still just 24, has won five of his last six fights with the only loss coming to current champion Henry Cejudo last December.
Formiga has a 2015 split-decision loss to Cejudo on his resume, but has won two straight to earn his way back into the top five in the division.
Women’s strawweight standout Michelle Waterson will take on veteran Felice Herrig, who had her four-fight winning streak snapped with a split-decision loss to contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz in April.
Former interim light heavyweight title challenger Ovince Saint Preux will face undefeated rising prospect Dominick Reyes on the card.
Saint Preux has won four of his last five bouts and earned three performance bonuses over that span.
Reyes is 9-0 overall and has won all three fights in the first round since signing with the UFC.
A women’s bantamweight bout between Lina Lansberg and Yana Kunitskaya has also been added to the card, along with a welterweight bout pitting Ryan LaFlare against Tony Martin.
Lansberg is 2-1 since dropping her UFC debut to current featherweight champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino. Kunitskaya, the former Invicta bantamweight champion, made her UFC debut in a featherweight title bout against Justino in March, suffering a first-round knockout loss.
LaFlare has won three of four, including a unanimous decision over Alex Garcia in April. Martin, a grappling specialist with eight submission wins on his resume, scored a win over Keita Nakamura on that same card.
McGregor will challenge Nurmagomedov for the lightweight belt in the main event of a card expected to be one of the biggest-selling events in the organization’s history.
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Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.