A fight between Stephen Thompson and Geoff Neal will now headline the UFC’s final show of the year on December 19th in Las Vegas.
The event’s original main event fell through yesterday when it emerged that Leon Edwards had tested positive for Covid-19, forcing him out of his 170lb clash with rising star Khamzat Chimaev.
Luckily, unlike other recent main events that have fallen through, on this occasion the UFC Vegas 17 card had a strong undercard to fall back on and so it was an easy decision for the UFC to move the original co-main event between Thompson and Neal to top the bill instead.
Even without the Edwards vs. Chimaev fight the main card still features the likes of Jose Aldo vs. Marlon Vera, Greg Hardy vs. Marcin Tybura, Marlon Moraes vs. Rob Font and Misha Circkunov vs. Ryan Spann, which gives it some added insulation in case there are other call-offs in the coming weeks.
If the new main event holds out it’ll see Thompson returning to action for the first time in over a year as he looks for his second win in a row following a unanimous decision victory over Vicente Luque, while Neal is aiming for his sixth victory since joining the UFC in 2018.
