{"id":875650,"date":"2026-09-01T01:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T01:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875650\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T01:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T01:32:09","slug":"ufc-paris-santos-out-pavel-andrusca-steps-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875650\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Paris: Santos Out, Pavel Andrusca Steps In"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cThe Last Kingsman\u201d has a new opponent in \u201cThe City of Light.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Ultimate Fighter Season 32 winner and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight prospect Mairon Santos was scheduled to face No. 8-ranked Nathaniel Wood at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-cards\/460921\/ufc-paris-fight-card-start-time-date-and-location-hooker-vs-parnasse\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC Paris<\/a> this weekend (Sat., Sept. 5, 2026) inside Accor Arena in Paris, France.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Unfortunately, Santos has withdrawn from the matchup and has been replaced by undefeated UFC newcomer Pavel Andrusca on less than one week\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Andrusca, 24, is a perfect 8-0 as a professional and enters his Octagon debut riding a seven-fight finishing streak. The Moldovan knockout artist owns an 88 percent career finish rate, including six knockouts and five first-round stoppages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">He is coming off a brutal first-round knockout of Gexipengchu at UAE Warriors 72 in July, flattening the 13-2 Chinese veteran with a sniper-like right hand at 2:09 (watch the video above).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Oh, and Andrusca has spent his entire career competing at Bantamweight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Now, on just a few days\u2019 notice, the 5-foot-6 finisher will move up to Featherweight and immediately face the No. 8-ranked fighter in the division.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Safe to say, Andrusca is an excellent signing \u2014 but UFC is throwing him directly into the deep end for his debut.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Wood (23-6), meanwhile, is riding an impressive four-fight winning streak with victories over Losene Keita, Jose Delgado, Morgan Charriere and Daniel Pineda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cThe Last Kingsman\u201d has quietly compiled an 11-3 UFC record and remains one of the most overlooked Featherweights on the roster for whatever reason. Saturday\u2019s replacement arguably gives Wood more to lose than gain, as he must defend his ranking against an undefeated knockout artist whom most UFC fans have never seen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Here is what the completed UFC Paris card looks like \u2014 knock on wood:<\/p>\n<p>Dan Hooker vs. Salahdine ParnasseFares Ziam vs. Axel SolaMichael Page vs. Nursulton RuziboevDaniil Donchenko vs. Punahele SorianoMorgan Charri\u00e8re vs. Felipe LimaLosene Keita vs. Muhammad NaimovMario Pinto vs. Ryan SpannKurtis Campbell vs. Trevor PeekOumar Sy vs. Modestas BukauskasNathaniel Wood vs. Pavel AndruscaMichael Aljarouj vs. Fabia SintesNora Cornolle vs. Klaudia Sygu\u0142aMatthieu Duclos vs. Luis Felipe DiasDelphine Benouaich vs. Sofia Montenegro<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For the rest of the 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":"\u201cThe Last Kingsman\u201d has a new opponent in \u201cThe City of Light.\u201d The Ultimate Fighter Season 32 winner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875651,"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-875650","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\/875650","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=875650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}