The UFC has made a switch on one its October cards that has resulted in a featherweight matchup between Edson Barboza and Makwan Amirkhani.
Barboza (20-9 MMA, 14-9 UFC) was originally supposed to fight Sodiq Yusuff on the card, but he’s out of the matchup due to undisclosed reasons. He’s being replaced by Amirkhani (16-4 MMA, 6-2 UFC) on the Oct. 10 card, which takes place at Flash Forum at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
MMA Junkie confirmed the switch with multiple people close to the situation following an initial repot from Combate. The people requested anonymity because UFC has yet to make an official announcement.
Barboza will be looking for his first victory at 145 pounds after a failed featherweight debut at UFC on ESPN 8. The Brazilian came up short in a controversial split decision to Dan Ige. Barboza is currently on a three-fight skid and 1-5 in his past six outings.
Amirkhani, meanwhile, has won three of his past four fights. He’s coming off a first-round submission of Danny Henry at UFC 251 in July.
The latest lineup for UFC’s Oct. 10 card now includes:
- Marlon Moraes vs. Cory Sandhagen
- Edson Barboza vs. Makwan Amirkhani
- Dricus Du Plessis vs. Markus Perez
- Seungwoo Choi vs. Youssef Zalal
- Ben Rothwell vs. Marcin Tybura
- Thomas Almeida vs. Alejandro Perez
- Tracy Cortez vs. Bea Malecki
- Chris Daukaus vs. Rodrigo Nascimento
- Tom Aspinall vs. Serghei Spivac
- Ali Alqaisi vs. Tony Kelley
- Giga Chikadze vs. Omar Morales
- Bruno Silva vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
- Joaquin Buckley vs. Impa Kasanganay