San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
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With just five weeks remaining before UFC on ESPN 4, a main event has been secured for San Antonio.
A welterweight bout between No. 3 Rafael dos Anjos and No. 11 Leon Edwards will headline the card July 20 at the AT&T Center, the UFC announced Friday. The event also added a lightweight bout between No. 13 Alexander Hernandez — who trains out of San Antonio — and Francisco Trinaldo, bringing the show to 13 total fights.
Dos Anjos (29-11) is a former UFC lightweight champion who most recently BEAT Kevin Lee by submission May 18. The win snapped a two-fight losing streak for dos Anjos, who dropped bouts to current welterweight champion Kamaru Usman on Nov. 30 and current No. 2-ranked welterweight Colby Covington on June 9, 2018.
Edwards (17-3), a 27-yearold up-and-comer, is riding a seven-fight win streak.
UFC reportedly considered other options this week before settling on the bout between Edwards and dos Anjos. A women’s flyweight title fight between champion Valentina Shevchenko and No. 3 Liz Carmouche was discussed, according to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani. Carmouche is slated to face No. 5 Roxanne Modafferi in San Antonio, while Shevchenko is coming off a successful title defense against Jessica Eye on June 8.
UFC also considered a light heavyweight fight between former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold and Jan Blachowicz, according to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports. The bout is currently slated for July 6 at UFC 239 in Las Vegas, and Rockhold reportedly could not change the date because he is committed to filming a Ralph Lauren commercial on July 20.
Hernandez, a 26-yearold who graduated Reagan and UTSA, is slated for a bout against Trinaldo that was originally scheduled for UFC 233 on Jan. 26. Hernandez was instead pulled from that fight and faced UFC veteran Donald Cerrone on Jan. 19, suffering his first UFC loss to drop to 2-1 in the promotion and 10-2 as a professional.
Trinaldo, 40, boasts a 23-6 record. He won seven straight UFC bouts from 2014-16 but is 2-2 in his past four fights.