Javier Vazquez Makes His Long Awaited UFC Debut in June

It’s been a dream for a decade, but now Javier Vazquez will finally make his UFC debut. The featherweight fighter is expected to return to action in June.

While no date or opponent have been set, Vazquez confirmed to MMAWeekly Radio that he’s set to return in that time frame.

“I should be fighting hopefully sometime in June for the UFC,” Vazquez revealed. “I’m not sure who I’m going to be fighting yet, but that’s more or less the time frame that they gave me, sometime in June.”

There are three UFC events expected for June. First up is the TUF 13 Finale on June 4 in Las Vegas. UFC 131 is set to take place on June 11 and rumored for Vancouver. The other show taking place in June is UFC on Versus 4 on June 26, which may take place in Pittsburgh.

Vazquez says he was actually offered a fight before June, but a few nagging injuries forced him to stay out of action, but he is now healthy and ready to return.

“They offered me a fight back in March, but I was coming off of an injury. Nothing major, but just needed a little bit of time to heal, and so timeline wise it didn’t work out,” Vazquez said.

Prior to his time in the WEC, Vazquez had fought in several different organizations. He was originally set to come to the UFC around 2001, but the opportunity never materialized.

Before his fight happens in June, however, Vazquez will be offering young up-and-coming fighters a chance to experience his training camp firsthand with a new project he’s putting together starting in just over a week.

“We’re doing something new. I don’t know if anybody else has done it, but basically what I’m doing is an MMA camp,” said Vazquez. “Basically what we’re doing is five days of intensive training, guys come down from all over the country and they train with me, and they get to shadow my training for my fight.

“So we’ll go to the boxing gym I train at, going to the Bodyshop with Antonio McKee to train there, probably take them to Erik Paulson’s to train there. So basically they’re just going to shadow what I’m doing to see if they have what it takes to be an MMA fighter.”

The first camp will be from April 4-8, and then subsequent camps will take place May 2-6, and June 6-10.

MMAWeekly.com will have more information on Vazquez’s opponent when it becomes available.

Damon Martin is the lead staff writer and radio host for MMAWeekly.com.
Follow @DamonMartin on Twitter or e-mail Damon a question or comment.

Follow MMAWeekly.com on Twitter and Facebook.