Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has made several changes to its trio of events planned to go down in the month of January on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, starting with UFC Fight Island 7 set for Sat. night (Jan. 16, 2021) going all the way up to UFC 257 on Jan. 23, 2021.
The promotion posted the multiple changes on it’s official website, which includes canceled bouts and certain matchups that were moved from one event to another. One bout was completely canceled as it was recently reported that Shane Burgos and Hakeem Dawodu will have to get it one at a later date as their fight at UFC 257 was scrapped after both men suffered injuries.
Without further ado, here are the rest of the changes.
UFC Fight Island 7
Due to COVID-related issues:
Mike Grundy has been removed from his featherweight bout with Nik Lentz. Nik Lentz will now face Movsar Evloev on January 23 in a 150-pound catchweight bout.
The middleweight bout between Tom Breese and No. 13 ranked Omari Akhemedov has been moved to January 20.
UFC Fight Island 8
A bantamweight bout between Ricky Simon and UFC newcomer Gaetano Pirrello has been added to the card. Pirrello owns an impressive 93 percent finishing rate and makes his UFC debut having won five of his last six bouts.
The bantamweight bout between Umar Nurmagomedov and Sergey Morozov has been added from January 23rd.
UFC 257: ‘Poirier vs McGregor 2’
Due to injuries to both athletes, the featherweight bout between Shane Burgos and Hakeem Dawodu has been canceled.
UFC Fight Island 7 will feature a Featherweight bout between Max Holloway and Calvin Kattar while UFC Fight Island 8 will see Michael Chiesa battle Neil Magny in a pivotal Welterweight bout.
As for UFC 257, the promotion’s first pay-per-view (PPV) event of 2021 will see Conor McGregor rematch Dustin Poirier at Lightweight. The event will also see the debut of former Bellator MMA Lightweight champion Michael Chandler as he takes on Dan Hooker.