UFC Fight Tonight: Is there a UFC card on Saturday, July 31, 2021?
UFC is back with yet another Fight Night card on Saturday, July 31 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The event will be headlined by a middleweight bout between Uriah Hall and Sean Strickland, which was originally scheduled to take place a week later at UFC 265. The co-main event will feature a bantamweight contest between Kyung-Ho Kang and Rani Yahya.
UFC Vegas 33 was initially going to have a heavyweight clash between Chris Daukaus and Shamil Abdurakhimov as the co-headliner, but the fight fell off the card and was replaced by Niklas Stolze and Mounir Lazzez. Visa issues led to Lazzez pulling out and he was replaced by Jared Gooden, who has so far faced no problem preparing for the short-notice assignment.
Before that, a middleweight contest between Roman Kopylov and Sam Alvey was also scrapped from the card as Kopylov too could not obtain a visa in time. A replacement could not be found in time and Alvey agreed to take a fight on August 28 instead, which is expected to be against Brazil's Wellington Turman.
UFC Vegas 33 lost a few other bouts as well, including a flyweight fight between Alex Perez and Askar Askarov. The latter pulled out due to a broken hand and Perez is expected to face Matt Schnell on August 28.
UFC Fight Night: Hall vs. Strickland
Both Uriah Hall and Sean Strickland are on four-fight winning streaks at the moment.
Since losing to Paulo Costa at UFC 226 in July 2018, Uriah Hall has bounced back impressively with wins over Bevon Lewis, Antonio Carlos Jr., and arguably the middleweight G.O.A.T Anderson Silva.
Hall did not get the opportunity to showcase his skills in his last outing but still walked away with a TKO win after his opponent Chris Weidman suffered a horrific leg break just 17 seconds into the fight.
Sean Strickland's four wins in a row include victories over Nordine Taleb, Jack Marshman, Brendan Allen and Krzysztof Jotko.
With Hall ranked at No. 8 and Strickland at No. 11 in the middleweight division, both fighters will be looking to further extend their streaks and secure a top-five opponent in their next fight to get closer to title contention.
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