{"id":799465,"date":"2026-07-14T10:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/799465\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T10:00:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:00:31","slug":"khalil-rountree-out-bogdan-guskov-in-at-ufc-abu-dhabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/799465\/","title":{"rendered":"Khalil Rountree Out, Bogdan Guskov In At UFC Abu Dhabi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cHitman\u201d is headed to the desert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The main event for next weekend\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-cards\/447644\/latest-ufc-abu-dhabi-fight-card-paramount-start-time-date-location-ankalaev-vs-rountree-jr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC Abu Dhabi<\/a> has undergone a major shakeup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight title challenger Khalil Rountree is out of his scheduled clash with former 205-pound champion Magomed Ankalaev. Stepping in on just 12 days\u2019 notice is Uzbekistan knockout artist Bogdan Guskov.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The promotion announced the change today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The 33-year-old is coming off a draw against Blachowicz at UFC 323. Before that, Guskov had won four straight fights inside the Octagon, stopping all of his opponents during that run, including Nikita Krylov (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/7\/26\/24474908\/video-highlights-ufc-abu-dhabi-results-espn-guskov-knockout-krylov\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch highlights<\/a>), Billy Elekana and Ryan Spann (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2024\/4\/27\/24142623\/watch-full-fight-video-highlights-ufc-vegas-91-results-espn-guskov-knockout-spann\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cHitman\u201d also holds a perfect 100 percent finish rate, with 15 knockouts and three submissions across his 18 professional wins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">As for Ankalaev (21-2-1), he will be returning for the first time since losing the Light Heavyweight title to Alex Pereira via 80-second knockout (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-320-ankalaev-vs-pereira-rematch-start-time-full-results-espn-mma\/394054\/highlights-alex-pereira-shuts-up-the-doubters-annihilates-magomed-ankalaev-in-a-minute-at-ufc-320\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch it<\/a>). Prior to his UFC 320 loss, Ankalaev had won 12 straight fights, with a draw and \u201cNo Contest\u201d mixed into his UFC resume.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Now, instead of facing Rountree, Ankalaev gets a dangerous finisher with nothing to lose and everything to gain, but the former champion doesn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Here is what UFC Abu Dhabi looks like:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Magomed Ankalaev vs. Bogdan Guskov<br \/>Steve Erceg vs. Ramazan Temirov<br \/>Islam Dulatov vs. Wellington Turman<br \/>Damian Rzepecki vs. Magomed Zaynukov<br \/>Rizvan Kuniev vs. Tyrell Fortune<br \/>Saygid Izagakhmaev vs. Abubakar Vagaev<br \/>Sam Patterson vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio<br \/>Thomas Petersen vs. Valter Walker<br \/>Ismael Bonfim vs. Axel Sola<br \/>Brendson Ribeiro vs. Magomed Tuchalov<br \/>Cody Gibson vs. Abdul Hussein<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">To checkout UFC\u2019s upcoming schedule of events click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/pages\/ufc-mma-schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHitman\u201d is headed to the desert. The main event for next weekend\u2019s UFC Abu Dhabi has undergone a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,61604,1396,179146,355513],"class_list":["post-799465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-fight-announcements","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}