Marlon Vera vs. Mario Bautista Moves To Bolster UFC 316 Line-Up

A previously announced bantamweight fight between Marlon Vera and Mario Bautista will now take place at UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey on June 7th.

Vera vs. Bautista had originally been scheduled for UFC On ESPN 67 in Des Moines, Iowa on May 3rd and at this stage it’s not clear why it’s now been pushed back a month.

The 32-year-old Vera heads into the fight coming off back-to-back defeats last year. One of those bouts was a title fight against Sean O’Malley, which he lost by unanimous decision, and was followed up by another loss on the scorecards against Cory Sandhagen.

That’s put Vera down to No.7 in the 135lb rankings ahead of his fight with the 31-year-old Bautista, whose on a seven-fight winning streak that’s taken him to the No.10 spot on the ladder.

Bautista picked up his biggest win to date last time out when he beat Jose Aldo by split-decision, and he also bested Ricky Simon by unanimous decision earlier in 2024.

Vera vs. Bautista joins a UFC 316 card that will be headlined by a bantamweight title fight rematch between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley, while a women’s 135lb title fight between Julianna Pena and Kayla Harrison takes the co-main event spot, with the likes of Kelvin Gastelum vs. Joe Pyfer, Johnny Walker vs. Azamat Murzakanov and Sergey Spivak vs. Shamil Gaziev also on the line-up.