Lightweight veteran to change his name to 'King' after upcoming UFC Vegas 71 outing, shuts down speculation about retirement

Bobby Green recently revealed his plans to permanently change his name to 'King' and rubbished the rumors of his retirement after UFC Vegas 71. The 36-year-old is set to face Jared Gordon at the Apex in Las Vegas in a lightweight clash this weekend.

In a recent interview with MMA Underground, Green explained the decision to adopt his moniker as his legal name and addressed talks of retirement:

"I’ve been telling everybody that I was retiring after this fight, and what I meant was, I was retiring as Bobby Green... I’m changing my name to just 'King'. No last name. Just one name. And so this is just the beginning of a new chapter for me... I’m just doing something different, like Kanye, like Prince. I’m just going to be me, bro."

Catch Bobby Green's comments below (7:35):

Bobby Green is on a two-fight losing skid, coming up short against Drew Dober and current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev last year. 'King' is 2-4 in his last six fights.

Meanwhile, Jared Gordon will look to bounce back from his highly controversial decision loss to Paddy Pimblett in December. 'Flash' is 4-2 in his last six bouts.

The upcoming Fight Night will be headlined by a pivotal heavyweight showdown between Curtis Blaydes and Sergei Pavlovich.

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UFC Vegas 71 loses the co-main event as Song Yadong vs. Ricky Simon fight gets pushed

Ranked bantamweights Song Yadong and Ricky Simon will no longer face each other in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 71 this weekend, but will instead clash in the main event of UFC Vegas 72 on April 29 the following weekend.

The promotion announced the news in light of Renato Moicano pulling out of his originally scheduled headlining fight against Arman Tsarukyan due to injury. With Moicano unavailable, Tsarukyan was removed from the April 29 card entirely. Yadong and Simon will now fight in a five-round bout.

Song Yadong was on an impressive three-fight win streak before suffering a fourth-round TKO loss to Cory Sandhagen in September last year. The Chinese bantamweight, who holds the No.8 spot in the rankings, will now headline a Fight Night card for a second time.

Meanwhile, No.10-ranked Ricky Simon will look to build on his five-fight win streak as he features in a five-round main event for the first time in the UFC.