Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.
Hopefully Alexander Hernandez is satisfied with the change of the UFC 271 lineup.
There were a couple of weight misses at the weigh-ins on Friday, one of which resulted in an outright fight cancellation. The oft-cancelled flyweight bout between former title challenger Alex Perez and Matt Schnell is once again off after Perez missed weight, and Schnell did not accept a catchweight.
Light heavyweight William Knight missed the limit by a ridiculous 12 lbs, but it’s light heavyweight so his fight with Maxim Grishin is just going to proceed as a heavyweight bout. However, its spot on the televised preliminary card is no more, and Knight vs. Grishin is now the opening prelim.
As for Perez vs. Schnell, that was supposed to be on the ESPN prelims, but now Carlos Ulberg vs. Fabio Cherant gets bumped to the TV portion of the card, and Kyler Phillips vs. Marcelo Rojo is booted from the pay-per-view and down to the preliminary card. That leaves Alexander Hernandez vs. Renato Moicano with the leap from the early prelims to the main card. Hernandez, you may recall, was not pleased with the initial placement of his matchup.
Here’s the new bout order:
Main Card (10 PM ET, ESPN+ PPV)
Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker
Derrick Lewis vs. Tai Tuivasa
Jared Cannonier vs. Derek Brunson
Alexander Hernandez vs. Renato Moicano
Bobby Green vs. Nasrat Haqparast
Preliminary Card (8 PM ET, ESPN/ESPN+)
Andrei Arlovski vs. Jared Vanderaa
Roxanne Modafferi vs. Casey O’Neill
Kyler Phillips vs. Marcelo Rojo
Carlos Ulberg vs. Fabio Cherant
Preliminary Card (6 PM ET, ESPN+)
Leomana Martinez vs. Ronnie Lawrence
A.J. Dobson vs. Jacob Malkoun
Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. Andrey Morozov
Jeremiah Wells vs. Mike Mathetha
William Knight vs. Maxim Grishin