UFC
Ivan Menjivar gets Mike Easton at UFC 148 in place of Renan Barao
May 19, 2012 - 7:25:39 PM Ivan Menjivar gets Mike Easton at UFC 148 in place of Renan Barao

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

With Renan Barao getting moved up to the main card at UFC 148 to face Urijah Faber for the Interim UFC Bantamweight Championship, it left his originally scheduled opponent Ivan Menjivar without a fight. However, the UFC didn't take long to find a replacement, and Menjivar will indeed remain on the card on July 7.

The UFC announced on Saturday that Menjivar will take on Mike Easton, who was supposed to fight this past week at UFC on Fuel 3 before an injury took him off the card. Easton has won both of his fights in the Octagon thus far, most recently defeating Jared Papazian via majority decision in a fun fight in January.

Menjivar enters this event having won three straight inside the Octagon. The 11-year MMA vet appeared once in the UFC back in 2004, losing at lightweight to Matt Serra, and he didn't get another shot in the UFC until coming over from the WEC last year. He's made the most of it, knocking out Charlie Valencia, defeating Nick Pace by decision, and submitting John Albert in consecutive fights.

UFC 148 is headlined by the Middleweight Championship rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen.

Penick's Analysis: This is a great replacement fight. Easton's not nearly as high up on the ladder as Barao, but he's certainly in a comparable position to Menjivar right now. Dominick Cruz's knee injury was definitely unfortunate, but this now opens an up for Easton to step up to try to pick up a big win over a very tough veteran in Menjivar. Good fight.