Ilia Topuria will fight at UFC 270 after all.
The undefeated 24-year-old is now expected to meet fellow featherweight prospect Charles Jourdain on the January 22 card after Jourdain stepped in as a late replacement on less than two weeks’ notice.
MMA Fighting confirmed the news Thursday following an initial report by Ariel Helwani. The bout has yet to be signed but has been verbally agreed to. Topuria’s original opponent, Movsar Evloev, withdrew earlier this week after testing positive for COVID-19.
Topuria (11-0) is currently the No. 13 ranked featherweight on MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings. He is a perfect 3-0 in his UFC career and enters UFC 270 having scored back-to-back first-round knockouts over Damon Jackson and Ryan Hall.
He’ll now take on Jourdain (12-4-1), a 26-year-old Canadian who has split his seven UFC appearances 3-3-1, but rides into the bout having won two of his last three fights. Jourdain captured a unanimous decision over Andre Ewell in his most recent outing in December.
UFC 270 is scheduled to take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim. The card is headlined by two championship fights, as Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane collide in a heavyweight title unification bout in the main event, and flyweight champion Brandon Moreno defends his belt in a trilogy bout against Deiveson Figueiredo in the night’s co-main event.
MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck contributed to this report.
