Ray Borg is heading back to bantamweight, and the man welcoming him in his return to 135lbs will be Ricky Simon.
The Sports Daily was first to report the UFC booking the bout, which was later confirmed by both fighters on social media. The fight will go down May 13 in Jacksonville, Florida at the Vystars Veterans Memorial Arena.
The embattled former flyweight title challenger Borg (13-4) has had a litany of mishaps in recent years. He has fought just three times since challenging Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson for gold in 2017. Since then, he has seen fights fall through, including after suffering an eye injury in the infamous Conor McGregor bus attack incident in 2018. Borg has also missed weight for two of his past three fights, at both bantamweight and flyweight.
Prior to his last outing, Borg stated he would retire if he missed weight again. “The Tazmexican Devil” defeated Rogerio Bontorin at UFC Rio Rancho in February, but came in over the flyweight limit.
He is, however, forgoing retirement, having walked back those comments previously. Borg will enter the fight on a two-fight win streak.
Simon (15-3) has been on the opposite trajectory, losing his last two outings, against Urijah Faber and Rob Font. That’s after starting his octagon tenure with three straight victories. Prior to joining the UFC, Simon held bantamweight gold for LFA.
