Ivan Menjivar To Face Mike Easton At UFC 148

Last night, we found out that Renan Barao would indeed be removed from his his bout with Ivan Menjivar and bumped up into a UFC interim bantamweight title fight with Urijah Faber at UFC 148. Well, it didn't take long for the UFC to find a new opponent for Menjivar on the July 7th card (via Fox Sports):

Mike Easton has been selected to face Ivan Menjivar in a bantamweight bout at UFC 148 on July 7 in Las Vegas.

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"Easton is one of the bantamweight division's rising contenders who's now going after the biggest win of his career, but he has to get past the incredibly dynamic and much more experienced Menjivar," UFC president Dana White said. "Both fighters have verbally agreed to the bout."

Easton (12-1) won his last UFC bout by decision over Jared Papazian in January. He was expected to face Yves Jabouin at UFC on Fuel 3 earlier this week but had to bow out with an injury. Menjivar (24-8) is 3-0 in the UFC and stopped John Albert in the first round of his last bout.

SBN coverage of UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II