UFC 240 - Holloway vs. Edgar --- UFC Fight Night 156 - Shevchenko vs. Carmouche 2
UFC on ESPN 5: Covington vs. Lawler is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship to take place on August 3, 2019 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, United States.
Fight card
Main Card (ESPN)
Welterweight Colby Covington vs. Robbie Lawler
Lightweight Jim Miller vs. Clay Guida
Lightweight Joaquim Silva vs. Nasrat Haqparast
Middleweight Trevin Giles vs. Gerald Meerschaert
Lightweight Scott Holtzman vs. Dong Hyun Ma
Light Heavyweight Darko Stošić vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu
Preliminary Card (ESPN)
Welterweight Mickey Gall vs. Salim Touahri
Women's Flyweight Antonina Shevchenko vs. Lucie Pudilová
Flyweight Jordan Espinosa vs. Matt Schnell
Women's Flyweight Lauren Murphy vs. Mara Romero Borella
Welterweight Cláudio Silva vs. Cole Williams
Women's Flyweight Miranda Granger vs. Hannah Goldy
Background
The event was initially linked to Sochi, Russia, which would have marked the promotion's first visit to the Black Sea region of Russia. However, the plans for a Sochi debut fizzled. Subsequently, after also briefly considering contesting the event in Manchester, as well as Tampa, Florida, the promotion announced plans to return to familiar surroundings of Northern New Jersey. The event will mark the promotion's eighth visit to the Prudential Center and first since UFC on Fox: Johnson vs. Bader in January 2016.
A welterweight bout between former interim UFC Welterweight Champion Colby Covington and former undisputed champion Robbie Lawler has been tabbed to serve as the event headliner.
A welterweight bout between Cláudio Silva and Ramazan Emeev was rescheduled for the event. The matchup was originally scheduled to take place in September 2018 at UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Oleinik. However, Silva pulled out of the fight citing a lower back injury and was replaced by promotional newcomer Stefan Sekulić. In turn, Emeev was removed from this event due to alleged visa issues, that restricted his travel to the United States. He was replaced by promotional newcomer Cole Williams.
A women's flyweight bout between Lauren Murphy and Mara Romero Borella was initially scheduled to take place on July 27, 2019 at UFC 240. However on June 20, promotion officials elected to reschedule the pairing to take place at this event.
A light heavyweight bout between Ilir Latifi and Volkan Oezdemir was originally scheduled on June 1, 2019 at UFC Fight Night: Gustafsson vs. Smith. However, Latifi was forced to pull out of the event due to a back injury and the bout was cancelled. The pair was initially rescheduled at this event. In turn, the bout was shifted a week later to UFC on ESPN+ 14 after Oezdemir was faced with alleged visa issues which affected his travel schedule.
A welterweight bout between Zelim Imadaev and Salim Touahri was briefly targeted for this event. However on July 9, it was announced that Touahri would now be facing Mickey Gall instead. No reason was given for the change.
