John Lineker gets wish, steps in to fight Jimmie Rivera at UFC 219

Jimmie Rivera has a replacement foe, and John Lineker has the fight he wants.

The bout between top-10 bantamweights has been set for UFC 219, which takes place Dec. 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and airs on pay-per-view. ESPN.com cited UFC officials in reporting the booking.

Rivera, No. 5 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA bantamweight rankings, originally was slated to face Dominick Cruz before the ex-champion was forced to withdraw because of injury. But now Rivera (21-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) gets No. 8 Lineker (30-8 MMA, 11-3 UFC) instead.

After losing his second MMA fight in November 2008, Rivera has rattled off 20 consecutive wins, including five in the UFC. He’s coming off a unanimous decision over Thomas Almeida at UFC on FOX 25 in July.

Lineker ended a 10-month layoff last month with a unanimous-decision win over Marlon Vera at UFC Fight Night 119. The victory put Lineker back on track after a loss to champ T.J. Dillashaw ended a six-fight streak.

Lineker said just days after his win that he’d be on stand-by for the Cruz-Rivera fight and now gets his wish.

With the addition, the latest UFC 219 card includes:

• Champ Cris Cyborg vs. Holly Holm – for women’s featherweight title
• Edson Barboza vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
• John Lineker vs. Jimmie Rivera
• Cynthia Calvillo vs. Carla Esparza
• Matheus Nicolau vs. Louis Smolka
• Carlos Condit vs. Neil Magny
• Khalil Rountree vs. Gokhan Saki
• Rick Glenn vs. Myles Jury
• Emil Meek vs. Kamaru Usman
• Marc Diakiese vs. Dan Hooker

For more on UFC 219, visit the UFC Rumors section of the site.