Jimmie Rivera News

Chris Taylor - April 1, 2018

Exclusive | Jimmie Rivera believes former champ Cody Garbrandt is being protected by management UFC bantamweight contender Jimmie Rivera (21-1 MMA) will be looking to extend his current win streak to twenty-one in a row by scoring a victory over Marlon Moraes at June’s UFC Fight Night 131 event in Utica, New York.

Tom Taylor - March 30, 2018

On June 1, when the UFC touches down in Utica, New York, streaking bantamweight contender Jimmie Rivera is expected to lock horns with former World Series of Fighting bantamweight champ Marlon Moraes.

Tom Taylor - March 29, 2018

Surging UFC bantamweight contender Jimmie Rivera fought just once in 2017, but that’s not for lack of trying.

Jason Kindschy - March 28, 2018

Another STACKED episode of BJPENN.COM Radio has arrived, Penn Nation! We kick things off with former UFC lightweight champion and current Bellator MMA star, Benson Henderson. Following the announcement that James Gallagher would not be competing at Bellator 196 in Budapest next weekend, Benson answered the call to save the card and now faces another MMA veteran in Roger Heurta. We’ll preview the fight in the usual “Smooth” fashion, discuss what he’d like to accomplish in 2018, and we’ll hear Ben’s interesting take on how to fix judging in MMA.

Justin Golightly - February 28, 2018

After a long back-and-forth, these two top bantamweights are finally fighting each other for real. The whole thing played out in front of us all on Twitter, complete with trash talk and even public contract posting. Jimmie Rivera said he was moving on from Marlon Moraes and concentrating on Dominick Cruz, but it looks like plans have changed. The two will clash in the main event of UFC Utica on the very first of June. Utica, your main event is SET❗

Drake Riggs - February 23, 2018

After multiple back and forths on social media and attempts to set up a fight between each other, it looks like there’s a much more solid chance for it to happen now. MMAFighting has reported that UFC Fight Night 131 in Utica, New York will be headlined by a top 5 bantamweight showdown between Jimmie Rivera and Marlon Moraes. The event takes place on June 1st. The talk of these two world class 135-pound competitors really heated up after former champion, Dominick Cruz was injured out of his bout with Rivera for UFC 219. Rivera found himself with several suitors to step in. The UFC decided to go with John Lineker who ended up having to pull out as well due to a tooth infection just about a week before fight night.

Drake Riggs - January 8, 2018

To say the least, it’s been an unfortunate way to end a year if you’re Jimmie Rivera. When everything was all announced, he was supposed to take on the former Bantamweight king, Dominick Cruz at UFC 219. That is until Cruz was forced out with a broken arm, continuing his own bad luck. After that, Rivera found a replacement in a fellow top contender, John Lineker. But…of course, Lineker was forced out of a chance at fighting as well when he had to get an emergency surgery done on a tooth infection. This left Rivera with about a week left to find an opponent for the final UFC event of UFC 219. After the UFC looked through many options in and out of the UFC, Marlon Moraes appeared as the front-runner asking for the fight…but on his terms. This led to both men going back and forth on social media trying to settle on a weight to fight at. They couldn’t come to an agreement as Moraes says he was at around 165 lbs during that week making it impossible for him to get to 145 lbs which was the highest weight discussed for the potential fight.

Tom Taylor - January 7, 2018

On Saturday, surging UFC bantamweight contender and former World Series of Fighting champion Marlon Moraes took to Twitter to share a signed bout agreement for a fight with fellow contender Jimmie Rivera. Here you go @JimmieRivera135 I signed my bout agreement. @ufc on fox. I also agreed to fight you on march 3rd choose what day you want me to beat your ass B-I-T-C-H @seanshelby @danawhite @AliAbdelaziz00 pic.twitter.com/nrU8WTjacF

Tom Taylor - December 27, 2017

Originally, streaking bantamweight contender Jimmie Rivera was expected to take on former champ Dominick Cruz at UFC 219 on December 30. Regrettably, though, Cruz was forced out of this fight with an injury. From there, Cruz was replaced my the ever-dangerous John Lineker. Yet once again, bad luck struck, as Lineker was forced out of the fight just days ahead of time. With Lineker out, Rivera began a frantic search for a replacement opponent, having trained through Thanksgiving and flown to Las Vegas over Christmas. And while it looked like he might meet fellow bantamweight contender Marlon Moraes at a TBD catchweight, that option is now off the table.

Justin Golightly - December 26, 2017

Leading up to the suspenseful weigh-ins approaching quickly on Friday, we already had a roller coaster of emotions kicking into UFC 219 fight week just after Christmas. Jimmie Rivera has been going back-and-forth with Marlon Moraes about being his replacement this Saturday, but despite multiple attempts to agree on increasingly higher catchweights, it never worked out. It all started when his former opponent John Lineker had to pull out of their fight with a serious tooth infection. Speaking recently to Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting, Lineker opened up about the situation. “I noticed this when I came to Las Vegas earlier. I didn’t know how bad it was a week ago. I started to feel the pain, but I thought it was something related to the root canal treatment I did three weeks ago. When I talked to a second doctor — the first one didn’t have an answer for the pain — they found this infection. I kept training hard despite the pain, but the pain kept getting worse a week before fight week. I decided to go to Vegas early so the UFC doctor could see how I was because I wanted to fight no matter what, but he saw that I wasn’t fit to fight and would have to do something about it.”

Tom Taylor - December 26, 2017

Originally, surging bantamweight contender Jimmie Rivera was expected to take on former champ Dominick Cruz at UFC 219 on December 30. Regrettably, though, Cruz was forced out of this fight with an injury. From there, Cruz was replaced my the ever-dangerous John Lineker. Yet once again, bad luck struck, as Lineker was forced out of the fight just days ahead of time. With Lineker out, Rivera began a frantic search for a replacement opponent, having trained through Thanksgiving and flown to Las Vegas over Christmas. And while it looked like he might meet fellow bantamweight contender Marlon Moraes at a TBD catchweight, it now sounds as though that fight is off the table.

Tom Taylor - December 26, 2017

Originally, Streaking bantamweight contender Jimmie Rivera was expected to take on former champ Dominick Cruz at UFC 219 on December 30. Regrettably, though, Cruz was forced out of this fight with an injury. From there, Cruz was replaced my the ever-dangerous John Lineker. Yet once again, bad luck struck, as Lineker was forced out of the fight just days ahead of time.

Russell Ess - December 24, 2017

A pivotal matchup set for UFC 219 has been scrapped from the end of the year card taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 30. The exciting matchup between current number 4 UFC ranked bantamweight Jimmie Rivera and number 6 ranked John Lineker has been canceled due to Lineker being forced to pull out of the bout. According to MMA Fighting, multiple sources have confirmed that Lineker was removed from the bout due to a tooth infection and will have to undergo emergency surgery.

Drake Riggs - December 14, 2017

UFC 219 was supposed to feature a huge Bantamweight showdown between former champion, Dominick Cruz and rising contender, Jimmie “El Terror” Rivera. Rivera has won twenty straight fights(five in the UFC) and his most recent came over Thomas Almeida at UFC on Fox 25. Prior to that, he handed Urijah Faber the last loss of his legendary career and has been clamoring for a title shot ever since. With Cruz forced out of the bout with a broken arm, Rivera is now set to take on John Lineker.

Justin Golightly - November 21, 2017

The UFC’s year-end mega card has taking more hits than most of it’s roster has had, but it is slowly being built back up. One of the bouts that ended up having to get split up is Dominick Cruz’s return to the Octagon against Jimmie Rivera, which was called off because of a broken arm Cruz suffered in training. Lots of fighters offered to step up including Marlon Moraes, Aljamain Sterling and John Lineker. Just earlier today, it was reported that a bout could be finalized soon, but now UFC officials have confirmed to Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal today that the replacement bout is officially moving on with Lineker. UFC is working towards booking Jimmie Rivera vs. John Lineker for UFC 219 on 12/30, according to sources. Not finalized yet but moving in the right direction. Hoping to finalize very soon.

Justin Golightly - November 16, 2017

Jimmie Rivera has done everything to earn himself the biggest fights at bantamweight and UFC clearly agreed. He was matched up against former champion Dominick Cruz, but Cruz had to end up pulling out due to a broken arm. Just like that, Rivera loses out on the biggest fight in his career. He’s since called out TJ Dillashaw to replace Cruz to stay on the UFC 219 card, but John Lineker has a different plan. “I would fight with Jimmie Rivera. I’m at the UFC’s disposal to fight him. I’m ready. I want to fight again, and it’ll definitely be a different fight from my last performance against Marlon Vera. I’ll be more in the rhythm and John Lineker will fight as he always has: aggressively. All the time, I am ready. […] I think I’m not far from a title fight and a rematch with [TJ Dillashaw]. I think that my victory over Marlon Vera has put me back into the mix, and I believe that another one or two wins and I’m in talks again to fight the champion.”

Tom Taylor - November 14, 2017

Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has a long and unfortunate history of being forced out of fights with injuries. Earlier this month, the trend continued, as he was forced out of a planned UFC 219 scrap with Jimmie Rivera with yet another injury. Speaking to MMAJunkie this week, Rivera explained that, despite Cruz’s apparent fragility, he wasn’t particularly worried about this fight getting scrapped.

Justin Golightly - September 30, 2017

Jimmie Rivera is basically one fight away from gold, or at least that’s a good way to look at it. With a tidal wave of announcements last week, it was made official that Rivera will take on former bantamweight king Dominick Cruz at UFC 219. Fight fans sure are happy with the match-up, as well as Cruz’s return, but no one seems more pumped than Jimmie Rivera himself. “F-ck yeah. I am super shocked. I think the biggest thing was they must’ve gave [Dominick Cruz] something good, or they told him that’s the only way. I don’t know. I heard that he wanted to take the fight, which I was super surprised. I’m just happy; I’m happy he took it so I can go in there and whoop some ass. I’m super stoked. It’s the fight that makes the most sense right now. I got a five-fight winning streak, I’ve beat the best. It’s time to fight the next person that’s the best so I can get a title shot.”