UFC Fight Night 265 will see a fight week change to a main card matchup.
Serghei Spivac was set to compete Saturday at ABHA Arena in Doha, Qatar, against Shamil Gaziev. However, Spivac (17-6 MMA, 8-6 UFC) has withdrawn from the heavyweight contest during fight week. Luckily for Gaziev (14-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC), a replacement opponent is being finalized on just three days’ notice: Waldo Cortes-Acosta. MMA Junkie confirmed the news with two sources following a first report from ESPN Deportes.
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Cortes-Acosta (15-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) competed three weeks ago in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 263 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He won the fight against Ante Delija after one of the wildest sequences of events in recent memory.
Gaziev will get to keep his fight date this time. He has been scheduled to compete against Spivac on two other occasions in 2025. The Dagestani heavyweight’s last fight was in February, where he knocked out Thomas Petersen in the first round at UFC Fight Night 250.
With the change, the current UFC Fight Night 265 lineup includes:
Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dan Hooker
Ian Machado Garry vs. Belal Muhammad
Alonzo Menifield vs. Volkan Oezdemir
Jack Hermansson vs. Myktybek Orolbai
Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Shamil Gaziev
Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
Bogdan Grad vs. Luke Riley
Nicolas Dalby vs. Saygid Izagakhmaev
Asu Almabayev vs. Alex Perez
Rafael Cerqueira vs. Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev
Bekzat Almakhan vs. Aleksandre Topuria
Ryan Loder vs. Ismail Naurdiev
Nurullo Aliev vs. Shem Rock
Marek Bujlo vs. Denzel Freeman
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This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Qatar: Serghei Spivac out, Shamil Gaziev gets new opponent