UFC announced today that James Vick will be stepping in to replace Al Iaquinta for the UFC Lincoln main event. We reported earlier that Al has withdrawn from the fight due to some unknown reasons. The UFC announced the news from their official twitter handle confirming ESPN’s report:
New main event in Nebraska is ??? #UFCLincoln https://t.co/DiJUq3K2OU
— UFC (@ufc) June 28, 2018
This fight will mark Vick’s 11th appearance in UFC. Vick has had a great record with 11 wins and only a single loss. Vick was scheduled to fight Paul Felder at UFC Boise on July 14. James Vick has always been critical of Justin Gaethje’s performance, calling him a human punching bag on several occasions. He replied to Ariel’s tweet before the event was announced taking another dig at Justin:
That punching bag Gaethje don't want these problems!! https://t.co/fqa92kRLgM
— James Vick (@JamesVickMMA) June 28, 2018
This will be an interesting fight in the already stacked lighweight division. Vick has been calling out for a higher ranked opponent for quite some time and this is his opportunity to break into the top 10 rankings.
Justin hasn’t responded to the official statement and it’ll interesting to see if he changes his game plan or if he’ll keep his stand and bang, keep moving forward style. Justin is on a two fight losing streak against Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier. This is his fourth main event in the UFC. This is going to be a great match-up between two great strikers with knockout abilities and given the bad blood between the two, this fight might not go the distance.
Who do you think gets the victory at UFC Lincoln, Gaethje or Vick?
