A fight between Jose Aldo and Petr Yan for the vacant bantamweight title is in the works for UFC 251 on July 11th in Las Vegas.
That’s the word according to Dana White in a recent interview on ESPN Sportscenter in which he confirmed that Henry Cejudo had vacated the title.
Aldo had in fact previously been lined up to fight Cejudo at UFC 250, but VISA issues prevented him from taking that title encounter and the fight was rebooked for UFC 249 with Dominick Cruz getting the chance instead.
The fact that Aldo had been handed a title opportunity at all was somewhat controversial given that he had actually lost his first fight at bantamweight against Marlon Moraes last year, though the split decision verdict had been considered controversial.
One of the people who had voiced his displeasure at the time that Aldo had been given the nod was Yan, who believed that he’d done more than enough to warrant the shot instead after a six fight winning streak at 135lbs that had seen him defeat the likes of John Dodson, Jimmie Rivera and Uirjah Faber.
Now Yan will get the chance to compete for the belt on a UFC 251 fight card that also features the likes of Frankie Edgar vs. Pedro Munhoz and Paige VanZant vs. Amanda Ribas.
