Kyle Daukaus Makes Short-Notice UFC Comeback Against Michel Pereira

UFC officials have opted to bring back Kyle Daukaus to serve as a late-replacement against Michel Pereira at UFC Fight Night 257 in Shanghai, China on August 23rd after Marco Tulio withdrew for unknown reasons.

The 32-year-old Daukaus previously had a two-and-a-half year stint in the Octagon between 2020 and 2022, but only mustered a 2-4 (+1nc) record during that time, with a KO loss to Roman Dolidze followed by a TKO defeat against Eryk Anders bringing a close to his UFC run.

However, Daukaus has since returned to the Cage Fury FC promotion that had previously been his home prior to the UFC, and has gone on a four-fight winning streak, winning their middleweight title in 2023 and successfully defending it twice since then.

Daukaus had actually been preparing for another title defense on August 30th, but that has now been cancelled as he looks to carry his momentum back into the UFC in the hopes of re-establishing his place on the roster.

He’ll be going up against the 31-year-old Pereira, who not so long ago was on an eight-fight winning streak. However, the Brazilian then suffered a 5th round TKO loss to Anthony Hernandez in October of last year, and has since been beaten by Abus Magomedov on the scorecards.

Pereira vs. Daukaus joins a Shanghai main card that will be headlined by Johnny Walker vs. Zhang Mingyang, while Brian Ortega fights Aljamain Sterling in the co-main event.