Ilia Topuria Steps in to face Jai Herbert in March
Originally scheduled to face Jai Herbert in a lightweight bout, Mike Davis recently pulled out of the fight. To take his place is undefeated featherweight prospect Ilia Topuria.
Topuria, whose last outing came to a halt due to weight cut issues has decided to move up in weight to the lightweight division. Whether or not he will stay and attempt to make a run in the lightweight division is still unclear, but on March 19th he will make his lightweight debut against quite a tough foe in Jai Herbert.
Jai “The Black Country Banger” Herbert, is coming off of a fantastic performance against Khama Worthy back at UFC Fight Night: Costa vs. Vettori. Herbert is also the former lightweight champion in the popular European MMA organization, Cage Warriors.
Needless to say, the likely Vegas odds favorite Topuira will have a tough task in front of him at UFC London. And the fight only adds more depth to an already really great card.
The card as of today will feature the following:
Main Card
- Heavyweight: Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall
- Lightweight: Paddy Pimblett vs. Rodrigo Vargas
- Featherweight: Arnold Allen vs. Dan Hooker
- Heavyweight: Sergei Pavlovich vs. Shamil Abdurakhimov
- Light heavyweight: Nikita Krylov vs. Paul Craig
- Welterweight: Gunnar Nelson vs. Cláudio Silva
Prelims
- Lightweight: Jai Herbert vs. Ilia Topuria
- Flyweight: Muhammad Mokaev vs Cody Durden
- Featherweight: Makwan Amirkhani vs. Mike Grundy
- Women’s Flyweight: Luana Carolina vs. Molly McCann
- Bantamweight: Jack Shore vs. Timur Valiev
- Women’s Strawweight: Cory McKenna vs. Elsie Reed
- Bantamweight: Nathaniel Wood vs. Liudvik Sholinian
UFC London takes place on March 19th, 2022 at the O2 Arena.
Prelims begin at 1 P.M. EST followed by the main card at 4 P.M. EST. Both are to be viewed on ESPN+.
