UFC 209 has undergone two key changes ahead of tonight’s event in Las Vegas in response to yesterday’s cancellation of the co-main event between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.
Firstly, in a somewhat surprising move, a lightweight fight between Lando Vannata and David Teymur has now been moved up to the co-main event spot on the card.
While Vannata and Teymur are exciting up-and-coming fighters who were already set to fight earlier on the main card, neither really has any star power at this stage, whereas the main card heavyweight opener between Alistair Overeem and Mark Hunt would have made a lot of sense in that spot.
That being said, Hunt is currently in the midst of legal proceedings against the UFC and so it’s likely that’s the reason his fight has been overlooked.
Meanwhile, in another eyebrow-raising move, the UFC have opted to promote a woman’s strawweight fight between Amanda Cooper and Cynthia Calvillo to the main card from it’s original spot on the Fight Pass prelims.
Both women are relatively inexperienced, with Cooper so far having gone 1-1 in the UFC and just 2-2 overall for her MMA career, while Calvillo is making her UFC debut with a 3-0 career record.
Check out the newly revised UFC 209 fight card in full below.
Main Card:
Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson
David Teymur vs. Lando Vannata
Rashad Evans vs. Daniel Kelly
Amanda Cooper vs. Cynthia Calvillo
Mark Hunt vs. Alistair Overeem
Prelims:
Luis Henrique vs. Marcin Tybura
Mirsad Bektic vs. Darren Elkins
Iuri Alcantara vs. Luke Sanders
Mark Godbeer vs. Daniel Spitz
Fight Pass:
Paul Craig vs. Tyson Pedro
Albert Morales vs. Andre Soukhamthath
