UFC APEX – UFC featherweight Chepe Mariscal seemed to be one of the last to find out that his original opponent for UFC Vegas 95 had stepped up on short notice for another bout, before being replaced by Damon Jackson.
“What’s crazy is I didn’t know until like four hours after they had the bout going,” Mariscal told reporters on Wednesday.
“I was busy doing things getting ready for that fight. Then we went to a fight card and when I got to the fight card they kind of like giving me a side eye. I sat down and then my coaches and another friend came by and they were like ‘hey man did you hear?'”
Mariscal (16-6) did not know that his original opponent for UFC Vegas 95, Dan Ige, had stepped up on just hours notice to face Diego Lopes at UFC 303 in the co-main event. Brian Ortega had fallen ill and as luck would have it Ige had all his medicals and paperwork done for his fight with Mariscal. That made it easy to put him in against Lopes.
Mariscal had no idea.
“They were like ‘Dan Ige is fighting Diego Lopes.’ I was like oh I got replaced? They replaced me? They’re like no he’s fighting tonight. In four hours,” he said.
“I was a little confused at first like can they even do that? Hats off to Dan Ige to take that fight on four hours notice. Then I was like who’s next for me and then Damon Jackson popped up.”
His team was already looking for a replacement and Jackson’s name popped up.
“It was like okay next opponent and we’re looking already the top 10. We’re just trying to move forward from that,” he said.
“It was cool to just have Damon Jackson step in at the right time.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Chepe Marsical above. He takes on Damon Jackson at UFC Vegas 95 on Saturday night.
