UFC Vegas 67: Strickland vs Imavov: On Monday, a significant modification was made to the first UFC event of 2023. Due to a mouth injury, Kelvin Gastelum will not compete in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 217 main event against Nassourdine Imavov in Las Vegas. According to UFC, Sean Strickland will take his spot in the main event against Nassourdine Imavov, which verified his withdrawal. The event will take place on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Follow UFC Fight Night 217: Strickland vs Imavov LIVE Streaming on InsideSport.IN
UFC Fight Night 217: Strickland vs Imavov
On short notice, Sean Strickland volunteered to fight Imavov. The fight will still go five rounds but will now be held at light heavyweight, which is a higher weight class. After an initial report by ESPN, two people with knowledge of the situation confirmed it to MMA Junkie on Monday. Minutes later, the UFC made the adjustment official.
Imavov (12-3 MMA, 4-1 UFC), a primary training partner of former UFC interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane, has won three straight matches. The 25-year-old Dagestan-born fighter with a base in France defeated fellow prospect Edmen Shahbazyan in the second round at UFC 268 in November after stopping Heinisch in July. Imavov most recently defeated Joaquin Buckley at UFC Fight Night 209 in September.
In the main event of UFC Fight Night 216 in December, Strickland (25-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC) lost by a razor-thin decision to Jared Cannonier. As a result of being knocked out by current UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira in July, he is currently on a two-fight losing skid. Strickland was on a six-fight winning streak before the two losses.
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UFC Fight Night: Kelvin Gastelum withdraws
In response to the news, a disappointed Gastelum wrote a statement on Twitter in which he apologized to all parties involved.
I’m extremely disappointed to say the least. This not how I wanted to start 2023.
I worked my ass off & battled through a lot of adversary and was ready to put on a hell of a show this weekend.
I apologize to Imavov, his camp as well as @ufc and all the fans. #OnAmission4Gold— #OnAmission4Gold (@KelvinGastelum) January 9, 2023
UFC Vegas 67: UFC Fight Night Full Card
Main Card
- Sean Strickland vs. Nassourdine Imavov; Middleweight
- Dan Ige vs. Damon Jackson; Featherweight
- Punahele Soriano vs. Roman Kopylov; Middleweight
- Ketlen Vieira vs. Raquel Pennington; Bantamweight
- Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Raoni Barcelos; Bantamweight
Preliminary card
- Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Claudio Ribeiro; Middleweight
- Mateusz Rębecki vs. Nick Fiore; Lightweight
- Mateus Mendonça vs. Javid Basharat; Bantamweight
- Allan Nascimento vs. Carlos Hernandez; Flyweight
- Daniel Argueta vs. Isaac Dulgarian; Featherweight
- Jimmy Flick vs. Charles Johnson; Flyweight
- Priscila Cachoeira vs. Sijara Eubanks; Flyweight
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