Rafael Fiziev has been announced as Justin Gaethje’s new opponent at UFC 313 in Las Vegas on March 8th after Dan Hooker was forced out of the co-main event match-up due to a fractured hand.
The 31-year-old Fiziev has accepted the short-notice on less than two weeks notice as he looks to avenge a majority decision loss to Gaethje at UFC 286 in March of 2023.
That narrow defeat ended a six-fight winning streak for Fiziev that had seen him defeat the likes of Renato Moicano, Bobby Green, Brad Riddell and Rafael dos Anjos, but he’s only fought once since facing Gaethje, and that too ended in disappointment when he lost to Mateusz Gamrot via TKO due to a knee injury.
Fiziev has been out for the best part of 18 months since then, so this is a tough test for his first fight back against the the 36-year-old Gaethje, who went on to win the symbolic’ BMF’ title in his next fight when he KO’d Dustin Poirier with a head kick.
However, Gaethje then suffered a now infamous defeat in his last Octagon appearance when he was KO’d in the final second of his first defense of the ‘BMF’ title against Max Holloway in April of last year.
Despite that, Gaethje still holds the No.3 spot on the lightweight ladder, while Fiziev has slid down to No.11 after his long absence from the Octagon.
The Gaethje vs. Fiziev rematch is a welcome shot-in-the-arm for the UFC 313 card, which had been relatively lacking in star power aside from the light-heavyweight title headliner between Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev.
