A fight between Volkan Oezdemir and Magomed Ankalaev that was originally targeted for UFC Fight Night 191 in Las Vegas will now take place at UFC 267 on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi instead.
Oezdemir is coming off a knockout loss against the in-form Jiri Prochazka last time out, which brought an end to a two-fight winning streak for the former title contender, who had KO’d Ilir Latifi and then earned a split decision win against Aleksander Rakic.
That leaves Oezdemir with a 5-4 record in the UFC and has him positioned at No.8 on the light-heavyweight rankings heading into this fight.
As for Ankalaev, he’s been in fine form in recent years, rebounding from a last-gasp submission loss to Paul Craig in his UFC debut back in 2018 to go on a six-fight winning streak that’s seen him defeat the likes of Nikita Krylov, Ion Cutelaba (twice) and Dalcha Lungiambula among others.
As such this is a suitable step up for him as he looks to continue his rise up the rankings, where he currently stands at No.7.
Oezdemir vs. Ankalaev joins a UFC 267 card that will be headlined by a light-heavyweight title fight between Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira, while there’s also a bantamweight title rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan in the co-main event.
