After co-main event shakeup, David Branch now fights “The Killa Gorilla” at UFC 230

By Chris Taylor - October 20, 2018

After two co-main event changes in the past ten days, David Branch will now fight “The Killa Gorilla” Jared Cannonier at UFC 230.

David Branch, Ronaldo Jacare Souza

ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was first to report the news.

David Branch was originally slated to face Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza at the November 3 event in New York.

However, after Luke Rockhold was forced out of his slated co-main event rematch with Chris Weidman due to an injury, “Jacare” was subsequently moved up the fight card in order to replace “Rocky” against the “All American”.

The UFC was quick to find David Branch a replacement opponent in the form of “The Killa Gorilla” Jared Cannonier.

Cannonier will enter his short-notice fight with branch having lost his last two contests.

The 34-year-old suffered a first-round TKO loss to surging division contender Dominick Reyes in his most recent outing this past May in Chile.

Jared Cannonier has gone 3-4 in seven fights since joining the UFC ranks in January of 2015.

David Branch

Meanwhile, former World Series of Fighting “champ champ” David Branch is coming off a spectacular first-round knockout victory over Thiago Santos which occurred this past April in Atlantic City.

“The Executive” has gone an incredible 12-1 over his past thirteen fights. Luke Rockhold has been the only man to defeat David Branch during that stretch, submitting the Brooklyn native in September of 2017 at UFC Fight Night Pittsburgh.

Check out the recently updated UFC 230 fight card below:

UFC 230 PPV Main Card (10 p.m. ET):

•265 lbs.: Daniel Cormier (c) vs. Derrick Lewis – UFC Heavyweight Title fight
•185 lbs.: Ronaldo Souza vs. Chris Weidman
•185 lbs.: David Branch vs. Jared Cannonier
•185 lbs.: Jack Marshman vs. Karl Roberson
•185 lbs.: Israel Adesanya vs. Derek Brunson

UFC 230 Prelims on FS1 (8 p.m. ET):

•145 lbs.: Jason Knight vs. Jordan Rinaldi
•125 lbs.: Roxanne Modafferi vs. Sijara Eubanks
•145 lbs.: Julio Arce vs. Sheymon Moraes
•170 lbs.: Sultan Aliev vs. Lyman Good

UFC 230 Prelims on Fight Pass (6:30 p.m. ET):

•155 lbs.: Matt Frevola vs. Lando Vannata
•145 lbs.: Shane Burgos vs. Kurt Holobaugh
•135 lbs.: Brian Kelleher vs. Domingo Pilarte


Topics:

David Branch Jared Cannonier UFC UFC 230