More changes to the UFC 270 fight card.
It seems like we can’t go a day without a fight cancellation, and today is no exception.
Ariel Helwani reported that veteran heavyweight Aleksei Oleinik has withdrawn from his UFC 270 main card matchup with Greg Hardy. In Oleinik’s place will be the man who just beat him, Sergei Spivac.
Hardy (7-4, 1 NC) is entering the last bout of his UFC contract on a two-fight losing streak. The disgraced former NFL pass rusher is coming off a brutal KO against Tai Tuivasa at UFC 264 in July. Preceding that defeat was a second-round TKO to veteran Marcin Tybura. His last win was a second-round TKO of Maurice Greene in October 2020.
Spivac (13-3) started his UFC career with an instant TKO loss to Walt Harris back in 2019, but he recovered from a disastrous start to win four of his ensuing five fights, including a submission of Tai Tuivasa and a decision over the aforementioned Oleinik. In his most recent bout, Spivac was quickly stopped by rising contender Tom Aspinall last September.
UFC 270 takes place on January 22nd in Anaheim, CA. The card is headlined (we hope, lots of fights are getting cancelled) by a heavyweight title fight between champion Francis Ngannou and interim champ Ciryl Gane. The co-main event sees new men’s flyweight champ Brandon Moreno make his first defense in a trilogy meeting with the man he dethroned, Deiveson Figueiredo.