During the UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. De Ridder broadcast on Saturday, broadcaster John Gooden announced the UFC 319 co-main event.
Following Movsar Evloev’s withdrawal from his scheduled fight with Aaron Pico, the UFC has opted to book Pico a fight against undefeated featherweight Lerone Murphy in the co-main event of the Aug. 16 card in Chicago.
Pico, a decorated wrestler who notably served as an alternate for Team USA at the 2016 Olympics, was originally supposed to fight Movsar Evloev on Saturday’s UFC on ABC 9 card in Abu Dhabi.
Following Evloev’s withdrawal, there was talk of the UFC potentially rebooking the fight, however, as Gooden indicated on Saturday’s broadcast, the injury sustained by Evloev will keep him on the sidelines for longer than initially expected.
Now, the former Bellator standout will collide with Murphy, who enters the fight fresh off a unanimous decision win over Josh Emmett back in April.
Following the announcement, Murphy took to social media, reacting to the bout:
Michael Bisping & Paul Felder React to Lerone Murphy vs. Aaron Pico Fight
Following the announcement of the short-notice bout, Hall of Famer Michael Bisping and former UFC veteran Paul Felder, who were commentating the event alongside Gooden, weighed in.
As both former fighters explained, while Pico is missing out on the chance to fight arguably the No. 1 contender, the new short-notice co-main event booking is a massive opportunity to get a big win on pay-per-view.
“Lerone Murphy is undefeated. He’s been chipping away in the UFC for a very, very long time and he deserves this opportunity. This is a massive one for Aaron Pico to make his UFC debut on the co-main event of a UFC pay-per-view against Lerone Murphy. That’s closing in on a title fight that has no weak areas. This is a huge matchup.”
Paul Felder agreed, echoing a similar sentiment:
“It also just goes to show you what the UFC thinks about this signing, bringing in Aaron Pico. They want him immediately to go to the top to fight the best guys. And Lerone Murphy is that. And Lerone Murphy also knows that this is a massive opportunity. Even though it’s his debut signing into this organization, he’s got tons of hype. If Lerone Murphy takes this fight and goes out there and shuts down Aaron Pico, he’s got a lot of power to say to the UFC, okay, now I want something even bigger than that.”
Looking at the Full Updated UFC 319 Card
With the co-main event booking, the UFC 319 card is currently as follows:
- Dricus du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev (Middleweight title fight)
- Lerone Murphy vs. Aaron Pico (Featherweight)
- Tim Elliott vs. Kai Asakura (Flyweight)
- Jared Cannonier vs. Michael Page (Middleweight)
- Geoff Neal vs. Carlos Prates (Welterweight)
- Karine Silva vs. JJ Aldrich (Flyweight)
- Alexanderr Hernandez vs. Chase Hooper (Lightweight)
- Nursulton Ruziboev vs. Bryan Battle (Middleweight)
- Jessica Andrade vs. Lupita Godinez (Strawweight)
- Gerald Meerschaert vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk (Middleweight)
- King Green vs. Diego Ferreira (Lightweight)
- Edson Barboza vs. Drakkar Klose (Lightweight)
Given that the card currently has 12 bouts, the Murphy vs. Pico fight is likely the final addition to UFC 319.
UFC Announces UFC 319 Co-Main Event