With Fabricio Werdum recently flagged for a potential USADA violation, the UFC is currently working on having Mark Hunt as his replacement.
This week, the UFC’s debut event in Moscow briefly lost its headliner bout when Fabricio Werdum was forced to the sidelines due to a potential USADA violation. The company has taken quick action, as it is now close to finalizing a new main event.
With Werdum out indefinitely, the UFC is said to be planning to have Mark Hunt as the replacement to take on Aleksei Oleinik. MMA Team Dagestan first reported the news and was later confirmed by MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani.
??BREAKING; In case of disqualification of Werdum Mark Hunt will replace Werdum in fight against Oleiynik at the #UFCMoscow
— MMA TEAM DAGESTAN (@MMATeamDagestan) May 22, 2018
Aleksei Oleinik vs. Mark Hunt is in the works for the UFC’s debut event in Moscow, I’m told. UFC forced to move on after Fabricio Werdum was provisionally suspended by USADA this week. The heavyweight fight, which is scheduled to be the main event, is close to being finalized.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 24, 2018
Currently 3-2 in his last five fights, Oleinik (56-11-1, with 52 wins by stoppage) put on a notable performance against Junior Albini at UFC 224 where he picked up a first-round submission win via his always dangerous Ezekiel Choke. The multiple-time Combat Sambo champion also bagged an extra $50,000 for Performance of the Night.
Hunt (13-12-1, with 1 NC and ten wins by knockout), on the other hand, has gone 1-2 in his last three fights. He last saw action at UFC 221 last February in Perth, Australia, where he lost to Curtis Blaydes via unanimous decision.
UFC Moscow will take place on September 15th. No other fights have been announced as of this posting.