Azamat Murzakanov is out of his scheduled fight against Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC On ESPN 52 on December 2nd in Austin, Texas due to pneumonia symptoms.
The UFC have moved quickly to resolve the situation however, with former light-heavyweight title contender Anthony Smith stepping in to replace Murzaknov, though it does mean that the fight has now been pushed back a week to UFC Fight Night 233 on December 9th in las Vegas.
The 35-year-old Smith accepts the opportunity at a time when he’s coming off a split-decision victory over Ryan Spann back in August.
That helped him shake off back-to-back losses against Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker and leaves him ranked No.8 in the division heading into this fight.
As for Rountree, he’s currently on a four-fight winning streak, having TKO’d both Modestas Bukauskas and Karl Roberson, followed by a split-decision win against Dustin Jacoby and most recently a 1st round TKO stoppage of Chris Daukaus, leaving him ranked No.11 in the division.
Smith vs. Rountree settles into a UFC Fight Night 233 card that was originally supposed to take place in Shanghai, China, but has been moved on short-notice back to Las Vegas with Song Yadong vs. Chris Gutierrez serving as the main event.
