Frankie Saenz vs. Jonathan Martinez on tap for UFC event on Aug. 1

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Frankie Saenz and Jonathan Martinez will join the lineup for the UFC’s return to Las Vegas.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that the bantamweight matchup will take place Aug. 1 following an initial report from MMA Junkie. The event will take place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas.

Saenz will make his first walk to the octagon since March 2019 where he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Marlon Vera. The Fight Ready product entered that fight on back-to-back decision wins over Henry Briones and Merab Dvalishvili. Saenz prepares to make his 10th UFC appearance, holding a promotional record of 5-4.

Martinez is 2-2 in his UFC run and looks to get back to the win column. After dropping his promotional debut to Andre Soukhamthath in October 2018, “Dragon” picked up consecutive victories over Wuliji Buren and Pingyuan Liu. In his most recent appearance, the Factory X trained 135er lost a controversial split decision to Andre Ewell at UFC 247 in February.

The UFC’s Aug. 1 fight card will be headlined by a women’s bantamweight bout between former champion Holly Holm and surging contender Irene Aldana.